Gabino Rey Santiago

Untitled

1959

Spanish painter who continued the tradition of realist and impressionist painting at the beginning of the 20th century, developed in the landscape, portrait and still life genres. With the beginning of the Civil War, he moved with his family to Barcelona, ​​where he began his pictorial training from an early age. In 1943, at the age of fourteen, he painted a self-portrait with which he won First Prize at the I Youth Salon of the Dalmau Galleries. Despite participating in the gatherings of the artists who would form the innovative and disruptive group Dau al Set, Gabino chose to follow his personal path under the teachings of drawing teacher Ramon Rogent. In 1945 the French Institute granted him a scholarship in Paris, which he was not able to enjoy, and two years later he withdrew from painting until 1957, when he resumed his artistic activity. In his work he opts for a figuration, faithful to the naturalistic interpretation of reality, through a loose brushstroke, which translates light and color in a style inherited from Spanish impressionism and post-impressionism. Since 1957, the year he exhibited for the first time at the Sala Parés in Barcelona, ​​his exhibition activity was linked to this gallery, also holding exhibitions at the El Cisne Gallery (Madrid, 1968) as well as in Lugo, Pontevedra, Alicante/Alacant and, outside Spain, in Los Angeles, New York or Paris. Among the recognitions obtained during his professional career, the First Prize at the III International Exhibition of the Bilbao Art Union (1947) stands out.