154 - ALDO BAHAMONDE (Santiago, Chile, 1963).

ALDO BAHAMONDE (Santiago, Chile, 1963). Portrait. Oil on panel. Measurements: 39 x 32 cm (each drawing); 52 x 45 cm (frame). Exhibitions: “21st-Century Contemporary Art.” MEAM. 2015. Reproduced in the catalog, p. 49. A Chilean painter and sculptor based in Spain since 1984, Aldo Bahamonde was born into a family that loved painting, which fostered the development of his early artistic vocation. At the age of twenty-one, he moved to Madrid to study at the Faculty of Fine Arts at the Complutense University of Madrid, where he befriended the painter Guillermo Muñoz Vera. In 1988, he made his debut with an exhibition of drawings held at the Madrid Assembly, and two years later he began collaborating with the Sammer Gallery, for which he worked exclusively until 1994. That same year, he moved to Tenerife to undertake an ambitious project comprising more than forty works—including oil paintings, drawings, sculptures, and prints—that together form a portrait of the island. Upon returning to Madrid, he began his collaboration with the Torrelaguna Museum of Contemporary Art, which would continue until 2005. His work, characterized by a realistic style, is particularly admired for its influence from the Italian Cinquecento. His favorite subjects are the human figure and portraiture, though he also explores still lifes, interior scenes, and landscapes. Since his debut in the late 1980s, Bahamonde has held notable exhibitions in Spain, Chile, and Uruguay, most notably his participation in the exhibition “Contemporary Chilean Painters in Spain” (MNCARS, Madrid, 2000). He has also participated in art fairs such as ARCO and the Shanghai International Art Fair. His work is currently included in the collection of the Museu Europeu d’Art Modern in Barcelona, among other collections.