Tomás Espina

Born in 1975 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Lives and works in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

I started out with the practice of engraving and traditional graphic techniques. I usually start working from preexisting images that have the register of culture in times of crises or danger as a common factor. These are images taken from various sources such as photojournalism, media and history of art, which I make go through material and visualization procedures, heirs of dark romanticism, alchemy iconography and certain experiments of the 20th century avant-garde.

Violence works as a determinant. I work with aggressive mediums, unstable to a large extent, i.e. gunpowder, soot, charcoal. The result has a residual aspect as a consequence of corrosive and hazardous action. I expect the audience to undergo some awkwardness in order to reorganize the information, and the image to behave as a blurry and unhinged presence.

Exhibitons
2011 – 3rd Biennial: Arte Contempráneo del Fin del Mundo. Usuhaia, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina.
2011 – Nuit Blanche, Théatre des Abbesses. Paris, Francia.
2011 – St. Moritz Art Masters, Project Lingua Franca. St. Moritz, Switzerland.
2011 – Arte Argentino Actual en la Colección de Malba. Obras 1989-2010/ Current Argentine Art in the Collection of Malba. Works 1989-2010 – Malba -Buenos Aires – Malba –  Buenos Aires.
2011 – “Do you have time?”  Judi Werthein – The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum – Connecticut – USA
2011 – Tableaux-Magasin- Grenoble, France
2009 – “Nigredo”,  Sala Gasco – Santiago de Chile, Chile.
2009 – “Argentina Hoy”, San Pablo, Rio de Janeiro-Brazil
2009 – 7th MERCOSUL BIENNIAL – Porto Alegre-Brazil – “grito e escuta”,
2009 – arteBA, – Buenos Aires – “Petrobras Prize for Visual Arts 09.”
2008 – Centre Regional d`Art – Montbéliard-France – “VISIONS”.
2007 – PANAMERICAN ART PROYECT – Miami – “ignitions”.
2005 – MUARE. CCEBA – Buenos Aires