VICTOR GOIKOETXEA

The constant need to expand knowledge and experimentation is one of the vital and creative motors of Víctor Goikoetxea (Urretxu, 1965). It is, in fact, the one that allows him to make the leap to decorative painting after starting professionally in his non-artistic side. Fascinated by the possibilities of the medium, at first he decides to grow by taking courses in which he is instructed in the imitation of different materials, such as marble and wood. He then attended the workshop of María García Frías and Natalia Lafita (Madrid, 1990) and the Decorative Painting classes at the Polixromia studio (Marbella, 1992) and Miriam's Studio (London, 1994). This base encouraged him to achieve greater specialization in the subject, for which he enrolled in two prestigious centers in Paris: Institut Supérieur de Peinture Décorative IPEDEC (1996) and Institut Guégan École de Peinture Décorative et de Trompe-l'oeil (1999). ) ). He graduates in both achieving sending awards (second and first) that stand out in his promotions. Subsequently, he carried out extension studies in mural painting in the same Parisian schools (2004 and 2005), and other descriptive geometry in Pignano (Italy).

The perception of his profession as an activity that requires continuous updating and revitalization of knowledge has led him to continue his apprenticeship even when he already enjoyed solid prestige in his field. In this way, he participates in Methods of the Masters in Porto (2011), a course taught by Martinho Correia, professor at the Angel Academy of Art in Florence, for two years after completing a master's degree in academic drawing at this renowned Italian center (2013 ) .

In fact, Goikoetxea's own professional reputation has led him to teach various courses on his discipline at an international level, such as those taught at the Estudios Sarina in Casole D'Elsa, Italy (2007), at the Castle of Falset ( 2008 and 2009), at the Hotel La Perle du Dades in Boulmane, Morocco (2011), in a private studio in San Sebastián (2012), at the Vichy Catalan Spa Hotel in Girona or in the Courses of figurative painting and trompe-l 'Oeil de Casa Piera Fine Arts in Barcelona (2016, 2017 and 2019).

In this sense, his solid training has allowed him to undertake the restoration of numerous historic buildings —public and private— to restore the solemnity conferred by their decorations, damaged by the passage of time, as is the case of the Town Hall. from Donostia/San Sebastian. In others, however, he has proposed that they constitute completely personal contributions through which to transform institutional, public and private spaces. The enumeration would be extensive, but his mural performances in the Port of Jávea, the Aquarium-Palacio del Mar in Donostia/San Sebastián, the Santurtzi and Hernani Town Halls, the Dior Boutique in Jalisco (Mexico), serve as an example. the Hotel Maison Marineta de Dénia, or one of his most visited creations, MiramArt, which completely modified the tunnel that connects the two best-known beaches of the Gipuzkoan capital (Ondarreta and La Concha) through the effective recreation of the seabed, and which is traveled annually by millions of people.

The particularity of his art, specialized for a good part of his career in mural painting and large format, has prevented him from fully developing an exhibition aspect, to which, however, in recent times he has decided to give a boost . Since the previous decade he has favored the production of work on easel, which has followed two parallel dimensions. On the one hand, he has explored the formulation of a realistic figurative painting in which to put into practice his formidable gifts for spatial conception, and which in some way constitutes a translation of many of his mural experiences onto canvas. In it, inhabited interiors open to different scenarios, in which the memory of trompe-l'oeil underlies, coexist with the wide panoramic views of an urban and natural landscape captured with precision. On the other, he is immersed in the investigation of the use and transformation of different materials, through which they generate an abstract production that continues with the surprising capacity of his figurative work, although in other registers. Metal, polycarbonate, resin, polystyrene or velvet are put at the service of a material creation, in which volume is also essential. A volume that in Goikoetxea has in turn achieved absolute independence through its foray into sculpture, in which it has notable examples, such as the statue of the tennis player David Ferrer in Jávea (2019), or the one that pays homage to General Manuel de Montiano, who was able to speak at the exhibition The Spanish Legacy in the United States, organized in collaboration by The Legacy association and the Ministry of Defense (2022).

Despite the aforementioned exhibition restraint, in the first decade of the 21st century it appeared in various international fairs and competitions, such as Construmat: Barcelona International Construction Fair (2005-2009) and the International Decorative Painters Salon The Salon, recognized as the meeting The most important and significant event on the subject worldwide, which is held annually in different cities: in 2006, it attended the Utrech (Netherlands) edition, in 2008, in Chicago, and in 2010, in Versailles (France). ), being in the first and third appointments the only representative of his country invited to attend. In turn, in 2013 he participated in the collective La Magie du Trompe-l'oeil, in the Jean-Jacques Gautier room in Chêne-Bougeries (Switzerland), which brings together about eighty pieces by nineteen artists specialized in pictorial illusionism.

Recently he has combined collective exhibitions with individual ones. After a first one at the aforementioned Aquarium-Palacio del Mar (2010), his solo career has intensified as a result of a later one at the Vetus Art gallery in Donostia/San Sebastián, which under the title From figuration to matter (2017 ) brings together figurative pieces with innovative and evocative abstractions. Already the previous year, in the context of the European Cultural Capital Donostia 2016, 16 Gipuzkoan artists participated in the collective in the same gallery, through whose hand he also participated in the Scope Art Fair in Basel and in the Galleria Pisacane Arte in Milan (both in 2018). In recent years, it has organized new solo shows, such as the one that inaugurates the Basque Luxury Studio (2019), headquarters of the association of companies in the luxury sector of the Basque Country, Public Art (2019), at the Casa del Cable in Jávea (2019 ), and, most recently, Matter in Movement, in the Recoleto gallery in the same town in Alicante (2022). The latter presents the concern in which he is currently immersed in recreating organic matter, and which requires in-depth research on the possibilities of transformation of the materials he uses for it.
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