ARTURO ELIZONDO (Mexico City, 1956). "Picante, pelados y pelones", New York, 1994. Acrylic and oil on paper. Signed and dated in the lower right corner. Measurements: 61 x 91 cm. Arturo Elizondo initially studied graphic design at the Universidad de las Américas, then continued his studies at the Escuela de Bellas Artes de San Jorge, in Barcelona, Spain, and later at the Escuela Nacional de Pintura y Escultura de La Esmeralda, in Mexico. Finally, he completed a postgraduate degree at the Escuela de San Carlos in Mexico. Throughout his career he has worked as a visual artist but also as a teacher, collaborating in various projects of training and promotion of art and culture, teaching courses, workshops and lectures. Throughout his career he has also received several awards and distinctions, such as the first prize at the Seventh National Encounter of Young Art in Aguascalientes, Mexico, in 1987; the Honorable Mention at the Fourth Rufino Tamayo Painting Biennial in 1988 and again the Honorable Mention at the 12th Rufino Tamayo Biennial in 2004. He has also obtained several scholarships, provided by the FONCA of the Mexican government, within the "Sistema Nacional de Creadores" (National System of Creators). His exhibition career began in 1981, and since then he has participated in numerous group and solo exhibitions in Mexico, Spain and the United States. His work is preserved in numerous public and private collections in Mexico, Spain and the United States. Among them are the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Monterrey, Mexico; the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; the Museo Extremeño e Iberoamericano de Arte Contemporáneo in Badajoz, Spain; the Fundación Ralli in Montevideo, Uruguay; Bouwfands Nederlandse Gemeenten B.V. in Hoevelaken, Holland. Immersed in the new Mexican figurative tradition of neo-baroque and surrealist compositions, Arturo Elizondo's work contains self-referential elements of lived experiences and personal desires, in the manner of a contemporary visual autobiography not at odds with national painting. His images are composed as if by pieces of different puzzles that lead him to a new composition. The long production time of his paintings, which can last for years, allows him to juxtapose several layers of time and experiences, as if they were sediments, and each painting a private archeology of his being.