Nacho Eterno is an emerging self-taught painter and ceramist currently based in Girona, Spain. With a background in both tattooing and street art, Eterno’s practice regularly features graphical symbols of characters and animals, combined with abstract blocks of vibrant colours. Each painting is built up through layers of oil paint and oil stick, the resulting gritty texture of its surface suggesting an organic or even archaic quality.
Influenced by folk culture, vernacular architecture and art brut (outsider art), Eterno’s work speaks to the role of artefacts in historical storytelling, including a sense of authenticity that comes from the handmade. Reminiscent of the tribal totems and masks interpreted by both Matisse and Picasso, Eterno’s paintings display a similar admiration for their geometric form, decorative motifs and raw energy.
Through his work, Eterno begins to invent is own unique visual language of cultural iconography, echoing both the spiritual and enigmatic qualities that are captured within important tribal artifacts, but also the deconstructed conventions of form found in cubism. As such, Eterno’s paintings become part of a contemporary reinterpretation of a fictitious archaeological culture.
Born from a combination of contrasting colours and geometric patterns, Eterno’s designs are both visceral, dynamic and unique, yet they simultaneously tap into a familiar visual language that resonates at a universally human level.
Exhibitions
