Luis Sanchez Gallery
Luis Sanchez Biography
Mexico born- Los Angeles based artist Luis Sanchez is a beguiling and animated interpreter of the figurative mode, who incorporates techniques of the past such as pigments and fresco-like media to his canvases.
Sanchez’s works are grim and sublime, realistic and idealistic. The result is a profound statement of light and dark, life and death, and the role we play in it.
His two-dimensional works are often noted for his masterful use of Trompe l’oeil, leaving viewers with the impression that he has used photography, collage or other techniques when he has only use a brush. His works seamlessly combine the old and new and have an uncanny way of mixing architecture with the human form.
The same is to be said for his new found inspiration in bronze sculpture. Combining strong, powerful figures in bronze with steel metal structures using pulleys, cables, and found objects, Luis has once again created a juxtaposition between our past, present and future in this new series titled “The New Alchemy”
“I actually began sculpting when I was about five, making my own toys, and began painting at 15, after years of watching my father paint for countless hours. So, although painting has taken up many more years of my life, sculpture was definitely my first passion. I have a very strong feeling I am merging with my future, lining up with my destiny, as now my entire life is in flux, having taken a sharp right turn. Something magical and unexplainable is happening. I believe sculpting is the portal to my future, and probably the most important phase of my professional artistic life”
Luis Sanchez is a artist who is not limited to any one genre, rather, he is a master at many. A true Renaissance Man, he excels at figurative and abstract painting, found object mixed-media work, delicate shadowboxes, bronze figurative sculpture, jewelry, and has even designed a line of artful clocks.
Born in 1968, Luis lived the first ten years of his life in Mexico City with his family (a Cuban born father who was also a fine artist, a Mexican-Lebanese mother, and an older brother and sister.) It seems art was always his destiny, as his mother had very strong dreams and visions of him as a sculptor during her pregnancy, and in fact wanted to name him Michelangelo. Thankfully, his father intervened, but her premonition was in fact, accurate.
Although as a child, Luis spent countless hours watching his father paint, sculpture was his first passion. He began sculpting at age five, using a material called Roma Plastilina. By the time he was seven, he had demonstrated an innate talent like his father’s, so he was enrolled in Mexico’s Prestigious Museo De Bellas Artes. This early education, combined with the tutelage of his father, gave the young man a solid foundation, and his future course was set.
Luis is best known for his realistic paintings of stunningly beautiful people (his friends) set in somewhat surreal circumstances, painted on his signature highly-textured canvases that resemble degraded stucco. This recreation of the walls he remembers from his childhood in Mexico City gives his work a most unusual quality – melding the ancient past with present day fashionable participants, and a question about what the future holds in the mysterious scenes he paints. His usually large works are mesmerizing examples of trompe l’oeil, leaving viewers with the impression that he has used photography, collage, or other techniques, when he has only dexterously used the brush.
The Sanchez family immigrated to the United States in 1979, and after graduating from high school in 1987, Luis attended Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle. But after a lifetime of chronic kidney disease and years of dialysis, Luis was forced to drop out of school to receive a kidney transplant in 1993. Unable to return to school, Luis focused on refining his drawing techniques, and began painting from his bed. He learned the subtleties of human anatomy through books, sometimes sketching for up to twelve hours a day. “My transplant was a rebirth. It is difficult to explain, but it certainly put life, everyone in it, and everything, in crystal clear perspective.” His work emanates the energy, discipline, and drive of someone who has gotten a second chance, and now lives life to the fullest.
The first major exhibit of his paintings in 1993 resulted in 3 consecutive sold out shows. Since that time, he has exhibited almost continuously, with shows in Seattle, New York, Florida, Indianapolis, London, and throughout Los Angeles, where he now resides.
Recently, his mother’s intuition ignited a major career shift. A seemingly random comment, “You should stop painting and focus on sculpture,” struck a nerve in the artist, who had been contemplating this change himself. Instinctually knowing it to be the correct move, he embarked upon a new journey, and has since created a completely original body of complex figurative work in bronze. “The New Alchemy” is a series that is inspired in part by the Industrial Revolution, and in part highlights the powerful machine of mankind itself. A private viewing of the first four resulted very successful, with the public premiere eagerly anticipated at Art Basel, Miami. Like a true alchemist, we can only imagine a golden future for this major talent.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2015
LA Art Show, Art Fair, Los Angeles, CA
ARTEXPO, Art Fair, New York, NY, NY
Art Hamptons, Art Fair, Bridgehampton, NY
Houston Art Fair, Houston, TX
SOFA Art Fair, Chicago, IL
Miami International Miami, FL
2014
Art Basel Art Fair, Red Dot, Miami, FL
Private sculpture unveiling, Los Angeles, CA
2013
Scope, Art Basel Art Fair, Miami, FL
Hamptons Art Fair, Hampton, NJ
NY Affordable Art Fair, New York, NY,
(view invitation)
Miami International, Miami, FL
2012
Royal West Academy – Natural, Unnatural, Bristol, UK – Int’l exhibit
(view invitation)
Evan Lure Gallery – NY Affordable Art Fair, New York, NY – art fair
Create Fixate – I Art You, Los Angeles, CA – group exhibition
(view invitation)
Evan Lurie Gallery – Miami International, Miami, FL
Evan Lurie Gallery – Palm Beach Art Fair, Palm Beach, FL – art fair
2011
Create Fixate – Eleven X eleven, art fundraiser, LA, CA – art donation
Evan Lurie Gallery – Art Basel Red Dot Art Fair, Miami, FL – art Fair
Art Share – Hispanic Heritage Month, LA, CA – group exhibition
(view invitation)
Terrell Moore Gallery – Portraits of the fallen memorial – presentation
The Factory Gallery – Fabrik magazine Int’l art competition – group exhibition Winners
The Factory Gallery – Los Angeles, CA – group exhibition
Evan Lurie Gallery – Of an Early Manner, Carmel, IN – group exhibition
(view invitation)
2010
Lois Lambert Gallery – Warriors, Santa Monica, CA – solo exhibition
(view invitation)
Hive Gallery – Master Blasters of Sculpture – group exhibition
Wanderlust Festival – North Lake Tahoe, CA – group exhibition
Lightning in a Bottle – Art Festival, Santa Barbara, CA – group exhibition
2009
Dialect Gallery – Grand Opening – group exhibition
2008
Lightning in a Bottle – Art Festival, Santa Barbara, CA – group exhibition
Glass Garage Gallery – Lucent Dossier art show – group exhibition
(view invitation)
2007
Lurie Gallery – Grand Opening, Indianapolis, IN – group exhibition
Red Dot Gallery – Wreckage Redemption, LA, CA – group exhibition
(view invitation)
Andrea Schwartz Gallery – Summer in South Park2, SF, CA – group exhibition
(view invitation)
Lighting in a Bottle – Weekend Event, Santa Barbara, CA – group exhibition
Roq La Rue Gallery – New Works, Seattle WA – group exhibition
2006
MJ Higgins Gallery – Figure it out!, Los Angeles, CA – group exhibition
(view invitation)
Soho Gallery – Abstracts, Studio City, CA – solo exhibition
Lurie Galleries – New Works, Miami, FL – group exhibition
Studio E Gallery – Abstracts, Palm Beach gardens, FL – group exhibition
2005
Bettcher Gallery – Material Whirled, Miami, FL – solo exhibition
(view invitation)
LA Shanti – Aids Art Auction, Los Angeles, CA – auction/benefit
Transport Gallery – Flesh Machines, Los Angeles, CA – group exhibition
(view invitation)
David Lawrence Gallery – Urban Dwellings, Beverly Hills, CA – solo exhibition
(view invitation)
LA Convention Center – Latin Business Assoc. Expo, LA, CA – solo exhibition
Museum of Crafts &Folk Art – Tar Fest 2005 Festival, Los Angeles, CA – group exhibition
(view invitation)
Studio E Gallery – Abstracts, Palm Beach Gardens, FL – group exhibition
2004
Glass Garage Gallery – Surface tension, W. Hollywood, CA – solo exhibition
(view invitation)
Transport Gallery – x1 , Los Angeles, CA – group exhibition
(view invitation)
Soho Gallery – Abstracts, Studio City, CA – group exhibition
World Fashion Awards – Private Exhibition, Los Angeles, CA – group exhibition
Lurie Fine Art Gallery – New Works, Boca Raton, FL – solo exhibition
2003
Atelier 31 Gallery – Urban Burn, Seattle, WA – solo exhibition
(view invitation)
Glass Garage Gallery – Exotica, Erotica, W. Hollywood, CA – group exhibition
(view invitation)
Studio E Gallery – Abstracts, Jupiter, FL – solo exhibition
Soho Gallery – Crossing Boundaries, Studio City, CA – group exhibition
Hangar 1018 – The MAX group show,Los Angeles, CA – group exhibit
(view invitation)
2002
Glass Garage Gallery – Foreign Figures, W. Hollywood, CA – solo exhibition
(view invitation)
Atelier 31 Gallery – Abstract Works, Seattle, WA – solo exhibition
(view invitation)
Studio E Gallery – Ancient Future, Jupiter, FL – group exhibition
Bellevue Art Museum – Auction, best of show, Bellevue, WA – auction/benefit
2001
Atelier 31 Gallery – Creating Myth from Mud, Kirkland WA – solo exhibition
(view invitation)
Atelier 31 Gallery – Birds-Invitational, Kirkland, WA – group exhibition
In conjunction with Bellevue Art Museum
(view invitation)
Bellevue Art Museum – Auction, best of show, Bellevue, WA – auction/benefit
Fiesta Latina Art Auction – Auction, Westin Hotel, Seattle, WA – auction/benefit
Port Angeles Fine Arts Cntr – Figure Northwest, Port Angeles, WA – group exhibition
(view invitation)
2000
Atelier 31 Gallery – At a Glimse, Kirkland, WA – solo exhibition
Fifth Season Gallery – A Glimpse, Tracy, CA – solo exhibition
(view invitation)
Belevue Art Museum – Auction, Bellevue, WA – auction/benefit
1999
Atelier 31 Gallery – Sculptures & boxes, Kirkland, WA – group exhibition
Garden’s & Sunspaces – Shadowboxes, Duvall, WA – group exhibition
New York Int’l Film Festival – New Works, Madison Square Garden, NY – solo exhibition
(view invitation)
1998
King County Gallery – New Works, Seattle, WA – solo exhibition
(view invitation)
Tule Gallery – Ancient Future, Seattle, WA – solo exhibition
(view invitation)
NW Folk Life Festival – Los Colores, Seattle, WA – group exhibition
1997
Galeria Coqui – Post Industrial, Seattle, WA – solo exhibition
(view invitation)
Agora Gallery – Metamorphosis, New York, NY – group exhibition
(view invitation)
1996
Spazzo – private exhibition, Bellevue, WA – solo exhibition – funded by Windemere Real Estate
Garden’s & Sunspaces – Shadowboxes, Duvall, WA – group exhibition
(view invitation)
Nido – Eclectic Works, Seattle, WA – solo exhibition
(view invitation)
Found Objects – Cajas Majicas, Seattle, WA – solo exhibition
(view invitation)
Frank & Dunya – Cajas, Seattle, WA – solo exhibition
(view invitation)
1995
Veritables – New Works, Seattle, WA – solo exhibition
San Marino Gallery – Medieval Collection, Bellevue, WA – solo exhibition
Les Arts – New Works, Los Angeles, CA – solo exhibition
1994
Ethan Harrington Studios – Private Exhibition, Seattle, WA – group exhibition
Nido – Retablos, Seattle, WA – solo exhibition
Found Objects – Icons, Seattle, WA – solo exhibition
1993
Fast Forward – New Works, Seattle, WA – solo exhibition – three consecutive sold out shows
COMMISSIONS
2013
Nate Seubert, Glendale, CA – “Amongst our Realm” – Living room piece
Sharon Franklin, Highland Park, CA – “El Absinthe” – Living Room piece
Ashley Wolf,Hollywood, CA – “Se Concentrer sur les oiseaux” – Living Room piece
2012
Jeff & Lisa Probst, Los Angeles, CA – “The Congregation of kindred spirits” – Main dining room
2007
Shawn Ebra, Los Angeles, CA – Residential – Family portrait
Carol Salsbury, Kona, Hawaii – Residential – Living Room piece
2006
Sebastian Taheri, Los Angeles, CA – Residential – Sister as subject
John Gableman, Lincoln, KS – Residential – Living room piece
Chrisopher Blue, Seattle, WA – CD cover commissioned
2005
Tom Zdon, Miami, FL – Residential-Master Bedroom piece
Lucia De Garcia, Los Angeles, CA – Book cover commissioned
Mark DiPaola, Venice, CA – Residential – Master bedroom piece
Lori Burnett, Everett, WA – Residential – Father as subject
2004
Mark Hughes, San Francisco, CA – Residential – Living Room piece
Rachel Schindler, London, UK – Residential – Living Room piece
Edwina Hull, Los Angeles, CA – Residential – Living Room piece
Stacy Kovats, Kirkland, WA – Residential – herself as subject
2003
Lori Burnett, Lake Stevens, WA – Residential – Kids as subjects
2002
Kids N’ Us, Everett, WA – Commercial – 15 murals for learning school. Commissioned by Lori Burnett
2001
Garth Macleod, Kirkland, WA – Residential – Parents as subjects
2000
Kids N’ Us, Everett, WA – Commercial – 10 murals for learning school. Commissioned by Lori Burnett
Melody Potter, San Francisco, CA – Residential – Living Room piece
1999
Garth Macleod, Kirkland, WA – Residential – Master bedroom piece
Lori Burnett, Everett, WA – Residential – son’s bedroom murals
Kids N’ Us, Woodinville, WA – Commercial – 13 murals for learning school. Commissioned by Lori Burnett
1998
Richard Tait, Bainbridge Island, WA – Residential – Bedroom piece for wife
1997
Café Infinito, Bellevue, WA – Commercial – Murals and painting for Bistro
Hal & Francoise Kerry, Seattle, WA – Residential – Living room piece/sculpture