The main hall of the IE University Creativity Center, located in Segovia’s ancient mint, is hosting “Localismos sin fronteras.” It gathers together works by various students who took part in an art workshop run over several months by recognized artist Alberto Fernández Hurtado (Segovia, 1975).
The exhibition, which opened last Thursday, is sponsored by IE Campus Life and the Arts Society. Visitors to the exhibit will be able to look at works produced in Fernández Hurtado’s classes. He is one of the most renowned Segovian artists, and his work has been recognized with over a hundred awards in national and international competitions.
“Localismos sin fronteras” is primarily a display of works by four IE University students: Americans David Tuma-Navarro and Robert Conlon, Galician Olalla Monteagudo Teira, and Vietnamese Xuan Hoang Do. The exhibit also includes collective works, created as a group, like “Exquisite Cadavers.” These oil paintings were created by teams of young people of different nationalities and with different artistic sensibilities. “There are works created by groups of up ten students. Each of them adds their own vision and technique, as well as their subconscious,” explains Fernández Hurtado.
Alongside several paintings, the exhibit showcases various works of “performance art.” Xuan Hoang Do’s work stands out here: it is an installation made of perishable materials (food essentially) that changes as days go by. “This installation reflects one of this workshop’s aims,” explains Fernández Hurtado, emphasizing that “what is important for artists is to work with ideas until they are formalized.” By doing this, Xuan Hoang Do was able to express something as difficult and complicated as the passing of time, the perishable nature of humanity, in such a simple and natural way.
Fernández Hurtado also takes part in “Localismos sin fronteras” with an installation created for the occasion. The work he’s showing at the Casa de la Moneda is “loaded with symbolism” and is especially directed at the students who have just begun their university career. It’s aimed at the “IE student”; a red carpet sprinkled with stars (representing the students) with a light, representing knowledge, shining in parallel. To complete the installation, there is also furniture: a set of chairs, a lamp, an armchair, and a table “which symbolize the idea that students feel at home at university.” At the back, there is a drawing of a brain that the visitors paint with their fingers “to create a community.”
“RAI”
Fernández Hurtado says that although the focus of this workshop has been on painting, in the future he hopes to expand it to other disciplines, like sculpture. This year, students worked with an artist who calls himself “RAI” an acronym for “Riesgo, Azar, e Intuición” (risk, chance, and intuition). In his eyes, these are factors that “we need to handle throughout life and that very few places teach about.” Continuing in this vein, he asserts that “it is important to know how to manage change and risk. Having faith in intuition is something that can be transferred to any personal or professional situation.”
The workshop’s ultimate goal was to give art a place in student life, helping students both personally and professionally, because “an artistic vision makes you stand out from the crowd.”
For Fernández Hurtado, running the workshop that the exhibition stems from was “very enriching” because the classes were directed at students from a multitude of nationalities and with different cultural and artistic sensibilities. “Technique is important in painting, it’s what helps you communicate with the audience. But at the end of the day, ideas are what’s most important; you have to think critically, not settle for the first thing you’re told,” he insists. The best way to learn is to experiment constantly, in the Segovian artist’s opinion.
The exhibition is free at the Creativity Center/Segovia Mint (Casa de La Moneda), and it will stay open until December 15th, 2018.
Alberto Fernández Hurtado
Alberto Fernández Hurtado began his career as a multidisciplinary artist after studying illustration at the Segovia School of Art and Design (“Casa de los Picos”). He joined the Fine Arts school at the Complutense University of Madrid after a period of self-teaching. In 2007 the Royal Academy of History and Art in San Quirce awarded him a grant, and his work has since received a lot of recognition. He has received awards at prestigious competitions including Sainte-Maure de Touraine, Ejército de Tierra, AXA, El Pardo, Valladolid, Ciudad Real, Palencia, Lugo, El Ferrol, Boadilla del Monte and El Capricho. His work is kept by various public and private entities, as well as in personal collections.