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Luis Sanchez

Luis Sanchez Biography


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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