"I take existing images, extract the stories behind them and give them new meaning by changing their reading. When conceptualising images as a language, I seek to portray them as words, making sentences and creating a narrative through their arrangement.

In modern life, we are surrounded by endless representations of society that distance ourselves from authentic life, whilst others have sought to understand this phenomenon «all that once was directly lived has become mere representation» (Debord, 1967).

There is an assumption that multimedia, specifically, visual representations can be read and interpreted superficially. At face value, I aim to challenge this by rethinking how we can question our existing assumptions and interpretations of what we can see and experience.

I am interested in creating an undercurrent of undiscovered meanings that flow through the core of my work. I encourage interpretations and meanings to gradually unfold over a slow and reflective process.

The images used are references taken from an ever-expanding photography archive that I have collated. I continue to build this with references of everyday life, personal experiences and external stimuli that shape me and form a collective memory of a time that we are living in."

(Alain Urrutia)

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He graduated from the University of the Basque Country and the Brera Academy in Milan in 2004. He was an artist in residence at the MA Studio (Beijing, 2011) and at the Rogeland Art Centre (Stavanger, Norway, 2008) among others.

Urrutia has displayed his work at international art venues including the Boston Centre for the Arts, CA2M Madrid, Artium Vitoria and the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao as part of its 15th anniversary programme and also in the Basque Artist Program exhibition on its 25th anniversary.

His work analyses new readings of pre-existing images by fragmenting and reconstructing their reality and eliminating their own story through painting; a game of shadows in which, through black and white layers and resources such as reframing and concealment, some details are highlighted to produce images with a certain degree of mystery.

  Alain Urrutia at Galeria Pelaires, June 2021. Image by Tomeu Grimalt de Blanch, courtesy of Galeria Pelaires.