José Vívenes

José Vívenes is a visual artist who is sensitive to the absolute complexities of human beings: both as individuals and as members of society. Through his research, painting has its own language: his process is the protagonist in itself.

His proposals take painting to its purest form; they are honest, his pictorial motifs cancel themselves out, they do not seek to please. When he paints, he does not even satisfy himself; he is interested in the painting having a life of its own, transforming itself; not tying it to any kind of circumstance but rather exploring it, overwriting it, questioning it from the process of research to the canvas: “It is a work that contaminates itself from the idea.” That is why, when he paints, he transports himself onto the canvas: he splashes it, touches it, hypothesizes from that constant looking, like an obsession, without expecting results.

Extra-pictorial language is found in his reflection on human actions. His messages communicate the current situation in Venezuela; they are records of the social and political present of a system in crisis. “Painting cannot be soft in the face of what is happening. The artist has to follow the same track as reality but parallel to it.“ Vívenes portrays what is disturbing in the human-political-social scenario to the point of generating astonishment and relief. He captures ”the harshest part of what we are looking at, because we live in a state of irritation in which we do not know how to react to things.”

Studies

2008-2009 Diploma in Western Arts, Arturo Úslar Pietri Center for Latin American Studies, Metropolitan University (Caracas, Venezuela).
1999-2005 Armando Reverón University Institute of Higher Studies in Fine Arts (Caracas, Venezuela).
1993-1996 Eloy Palacios School of Fine Arts (Maturín, Venezuela).

Group exhibitions

2015 Memoria y Sueño (Memory and Dream), 6th Beijing International Art Biennial, China Art Motion, La Sala Mendoza presents its first pop-up exhibition featuring a selection of 25 Venezuelan artists in New York City, USA.

2012 Contemporary Venezuelan Painting, National Art Museum of China, BeijingMiedo & Fear, Local Project, Long Island, New York, USA.

2010 Free Zone. Emerging Art, Braulio Salazar University Gallery, Carabobo, Venezuela.

2009 Miguel Otero Silva Biennial Art Exhibition, Caracas, Venezuela.

2008 Childhood Territory and Reality, National Art Gallery, Caracas, Venezuela.

2007 I Banco Caroní National Salon, Alejandro Otero Art Museum, Caracas, Venezuela.

2006 Variable Measures. The Reverberation of the 21st Century, Alejandro Otero Museum, Caracas, Venezuela.

2005 Art at Play, Museum of Fine Arts, Caracas, Venezuela.

  • SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2015 Oblique Bodies. Front-Back, Beatriz Gil Gallery, Caracas, Venezuela.

2014 Pictorial Theater II, Braulio Salazar University Gallery, Carabobo, Venezuela.

2013 Pictorial Theater I, Zulia Museum of Contemporary Art, Maracaibo, Venezuela.

2012 Pictorial Theater, Artempo Foundation, ARS DDB, Caracas, Venezuela.

Painting and Fragment, Art Puy Gallery, Caracas, Venezuela.

A Speech, Carmelo Fernández Museum, Yaracuy, Venezuela.

2011 HUMANITAS ARS. The Human Figure in Five Venezuelan Artists, Acarigua Araure Art Museum, Portuguesa, Venezuela Pintón Pasado. Fresh Painting, GBG Arts, Caracas, Venezuela 2010 Notes and Sketches, Rosablanco Gallery, Maracaibo, Venezuela.

2008 The Other, The Same, Art Puy Gallery, Caracas, Venezuela.

2007 Children of the Line, Art Puy Gallery, Caracas, Venezuela. DIBUJHATOS Collective 77, Starsky Brines + José Vívenes, Espacio Zero Gallery, Caracas, Venezuela.

2006 Silhouettes / Shadows / Faces, Spacio Zero Gallery, Caracas, Venezuela Incarnations of Absence. Notes in the Space of José Vívenes, Francisco Narváez Foundation, Caracas, Venezuela.

Awards

1998 Best Work Award at the 5th Biennial Exhibition of Young Artists from the East, Porlamar.

1999 Painting Award at the First “Héctor Poleo” Youth Exhibition, FONDE-CONAC.

2003 Francisco de Miranda Job Fair at the First Art Exhibition.

2001 Exxon Mobil of Venezuela Sacred Museum.

2001 First Prize, December 7 Art Salon.

2002 Mario Abreu Award at the XXVII National Art Exhibition, Aragua Museum of Contemporary Art, Maracay.

2003 Grand Prize IX Regional Exhibition of Young Artists Tribute to “Luís Felipe Salazar”

2005 “Young AVAP” Award

2006 Eladio Alemán Sucre Award at the 63rd Arturo Michelena Biennial Exhibition, Ateneo de Valencia.

2008 Mario Abreu Award at the 33rd Aragua National Art Exhibition, Maracay Museum of Contemporary Art.

2012 Braulio Salazar Award at the 66th Arturo Michelena Exhibition, Ateneo de Valencia.

2014 Special Mention at the II Mérida Foto National Photography Festival.

2015 Honorable Mention in the Eugenio Mendoza Award, Edition #12+1

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