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Unai San Martin
(b. 1964)
Unai San Martin was born 1964 in the Basque country, Spain, in a family with a long tradition of artisans and gun makers. His father was an avid book collector; hence Unai became interested in fields related to books and publishing, printmaking and photography. His family took long trips to Spanish villages during Franco's dictatorship. San Martin started as a painter, and lived in the south of Spain during his military service. He had his first solo show in France shortly afterwards, showing colorful, abstract paintings inspired by the light of Seville. In 1989, San Martin moved to London, where he made his first prints, etchings and woodcuts. There his paintings become more and more monochromatic, which interests him in studying photography. Soon he takes photography classes and spends some time in New York, attending the Pratt Institute and researching photogravure techniques. Shortly after, San Martin moves to Madrid to work as a printer and plate-maker for many artists. In 1998, he moved to the San Francisco Bay Area of California, and has resided here since. He currently teaches Photogravure and is involved in many publishing projects of his work as well as other artists'. His work is represented in many museums and collections, such as Museo Reina Sofia of Madrid, Spain, and in 2002 won the national printmaking competition in Spain.
Although San Martin's pictures are taken in real places, they are mental landscapes, daydreams of a mythic topography. Paths covered by silence, and walked by solitary travelers are his studios where he constructs his work. San Martin has been strongly influenced by painters and writers of the romantic era. Because of this, although he sometimes explores current digital techniques, he often does so in combination with historic processes, such as photogravure. San Martin describes a successful work "if it has a life of its own, and its capable of bringing to the spectator a remembrance of things buried in memory, an echo of waves crashing deep in our sleep".
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