Jose Manuel Ballester

Artist

Painter and photographer. Born in Madrid in 1960. Graduated in Fine Arts in 1984 from the Complutense University of Madrid. National Engraving Prize in 1999. Goya Prize for Painting Villa de Madrid and later in 2008 the Photography Prize from the Community of Madrid. National Photography Award 2010.

His artistic career began in painting with special interest in the technique of the Italian and Flemish schools of the XV and XVIII centuries. Starting in 1990 he began to combine painting and photography. It’s worth highlighting among his numerous exhibitions “Places of Passage” (Valencia, 2003), “Setting Out” (New York, 2003) or “Room 523” (Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid 2005), “Fervor de Metrópolis” (Pinacoteca del Estado de Sao Paulo, 2010), “Abstraction in Reality” (Madrid, 2011), “Hidden Spaces” at the Academy of Spain in Rome (2012),“Allumar” (Lisbon 2015) and “White Museums” at the Ivorypress Gallery (2015). Collectively, he has exhibited on numerous occasions at ARCO, ART CHICAGO, ART FORUM BERLIN, PARISPHOTO and ART MIAMI, and other cities such as New York, Dallas, Sao Paulo, Dubai, Beijing, Shanghai, Toronto, among many others.

His works are part of the collections of the Reina Sofía Art Center (MNCARS), Marugame Museum of Spanish Contemporary Art in Japan, IVAM in Valencia, Pérez Art Museum and Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation in Miami, Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, Patio Herreriano de Valladolid, 21 Century Museum of Kentucky, Fundación Telefónica, Banco EspírituSanto in Lisbon, Pinacoteca of the State of Sao Paulo, Guggenheim Museum of Bilbao, Iberdrola collection, among others .