B I O G R A P H Y (Uruguay, b. 1974)The work of Santiago Garcia explores the intriguing world between realism and abstraction. The artist’s work conveys fictional situations within a framework of the everyday world and leaves the viewer free to interpret the painting in a personal way.The artist was born in Montevideo, Uruguay in 1974. As a self-taught painter, Garcia produced an immense body of work in his early years. During the mid-1990s, on an art scholarship with the University of Uruguay, he studied under master engraver Eduardo Fornasari, master painter Clever Lara, and acclaimed ceramicist Susana Pizzurno.In 1998, Garcia obtained a grant from the Museum of American art of Maldonado for drawing and painting studies with the master painter Miguel Angel Battegazzore. He worked as an assistant to the Argentinean painter Rogelio Polesello for exhibition at the Museum of American art of Maldonado, Uruguay. For the exhibition, he produced murals for Juvenalia 98 and the subsequent exhibition at La Rural del Prado in Montevideo, Uruguay.The numbers and sometimes words that appear in Santiago Garcia’s paintings are based on Divine Proportion, a mathematical ratio that ultimately determines the patterns and proportions of the painting. Each number used has significance and meaning. The words on the canvas are left up to the viewer to interpret.The work is often referred to as “new figuration” or “magic realism.” “New figuration” refers to the revival of figurative art in Europe and America in the 60s following a period dominated by abstraction. Garcia’s work shows a passion for the form, be it human, animal or other.Garcia’s paintings often incorporate seemingly contradictory elements that he brings into harmony. Some of his paintings show animals in absurd situations revealing a modern world that clashes with the wild. The artist feels that his paintings should not be fully explained, though much of his work can be seen as a metaphor for family and relationships, and he reminds us of where humans have been and where we’re going.