Zona de confort: Santiago Ydáñez

Zona de confort is Santiago Ydáñez’s third solo exhibition at VETA by Fer Francés. The concept for the show has been developing for more than five years and has resulted in thirteen new works of various formats, created specifically for the gallery. The central theme is architecture, a subject the artist had never explored until now. 

With these new works, Ydáñez translates several buildings into the pictorial language, overcoming his self-declared “fear of the straight line” and paying tribute to significant buildings by admired figures such as Marcel Breuer, Robert Venturi, and Tadao Ando, to name just a few. Some of the buildings are easily recognizable, like Le Corbusier’s famous Villa Savoye. Others are more cryptic, such as the reinterpretation of a building by Walter Gropius, recently executed by an Italian architect. 

The exhibition is completed with four portraits, where Ydáñez—through his characteristic psychological study of the gaze, captures the brilliance of several architects, from Norman Foster to his admired Souto de Moura. 

Santiago Ydáñez (Puente de Génave, Jaén, 1969) is one of the most internationally recognized Spanish painters today. His work has been exhibited in institutions such as the Museum of Fine Arts of Valencia; Villa di Livia, Rome; Whitebox Art Center, Beijing; CAC Málaga; CAAM in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria; Chirivella Soriano Foundation, Valencia; ICAS, Seville; the Instituto Cervantes in Palermo and Stockholm; the Goethe-Institut; and Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, among others. His work is part of collections such as CAC Málaga; CAAM Las Palmas; Fundación Botín, Santander; DKV Collection; Museo Sofía Imber, Caracas; ABC Collection, Madrid; and the L’Oréal Collection.