Who Is Guillermo Lorca?
The Origination of a Painter
Guillermo Lora was born in 1984 to the writer Beatriz Garcia-Huidobro. He was born and brought up in Chiles’ capital, Santiago de Chile. Guillermo started painting at the age of eight and developed a unique interest in art. His childhood fantasies and the unrealistic world of his dreams were major drivers.
At the age of 16 he began his artistic training with the Chilean painter Sergio Montero and in 2002 already took part in group exhibitions at the Salón Nacional de Bellas Artes. Then he studied art at the Catholic University. Lorca painted his first mural in the cellar of a vineyard when he was 20. Its dimensions were 13 x 131 feet, painted in oils. As the university did not provide the hands-on experience he desired, he dropped out of the university during the third year. After his first individual exhibition in Santiago in 2007, he moved to Norway for an apprenticeship with Odd Nerdrum. He wanted to ascertain Rembrandt’s painting secrets by studying his greatest works in the flesh, and to learn more about those techniques from Odd Nerdrum, who is considered by some a veritable Rembrandt Reincarnated.
From him, Guillermo learned the figurative painting style. In 2008 he returned to Santiago de Chile and started to exhibit his paintings in collective exhibitions and also in his second individual exhibition. Simultaneously, he painted several large-format portraits for the Santiago metro station. This was a major achievement and in no time, he became one of the youngest successful figurative painters in the country. In 2014 he had an individual exhibition in the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Santiago de Chile. He felt very lucky for the opportunity and the great number of visitors as he had dreamt as a child of exhibiting there. By now he had several individual exhibitions in Chile and abroad and participated in important art fairs and exhibitions around the world.
Lorca has also ventured into the cinematic world. In 2013, he appeared in the film "The summer of flying fish" by Marcela Said. Guillermo’s cinematic experience has an impact on his paintings. Last but not least, Lorca was also named among his country's top 100 young leaders.
Painting a dream
“I am interested in such topics as death, eroticism, and nature — and their symbols. I try to find a balance between my own subjectivity and a collective subconscious.” Lorca’s artwork is stimulated by the ambiguous and sensual violence of nature. His inspiration comes from other artists, from nature and movies.
The artist states that he reaches for an imaginary amoral world with few adults - the children, animals, and other natural forms become the protagonists. To him the animals and girls are preconscious, amoral creatures, a set of forces that are not finished coding of what to become. The interactions between them express in imagery what is difficult to say in words. His works focus on the intense interactions between innocence and the violence of nature. Lorca thinks that the paintings can be read in many different ways, all of which are valid. He does not seek a definitive meaning, but his images are not random either. According to the artist one must take charge of the symbols and understand that they may signify different things all at the same time.
The painting style of Lorca is defined differently among critics. According to the painter during an interview with Paula magazine in 2014, his artworks are neither an approach to realism nor do they follow the characteristics of hyperrealism. Thus, the style of Lorca’s painting is somewhat unconventional, and according to the painter, lies between the spectrum of realism and hyperrealism.
The unconscious part of the brain are the driving factors of his figurative artwork. According to Lorca, his artwork and the ideas behind it are inspired by Gustave Dore, as he developed an interest in painting from the illustrations of Gustave Dore in a fairy tale book that he used to read in his childhood. Lorca feels that every artwork has a spiritual connection with him and a storyline from his childhood memories or fairytales.
The dream-like looming forms the baseline of Lora’s artworks. Whenever a dreamy childhood memory hits his mind, he starts painting. Lolita girls, dogs, meat, blood, milk, birds of prey, and fire form the cast of characters in Lorca’s painted narratives depicting the darker sides of human psychology. The artist creates a world where the surreal, gruesome and fantasy meet to create a 'surrealist chaos'.
Lorca has a past with anxiety disorder and nightmares. He also has a controversial understanding of death that has a profound impact on his artwork. A touch of these feelings is incorporated in every figurative portrayal and form the surreal style of his painting.
However, each individual character in the portrayal is also figurative and seemingly real. Hence the statement of the artist that his artwork is neither wholly surreal nor realistic. Instead, it is a unique amalgamation of both techniques into a figurative, narrative painting.
Guillermo Lorca Today
Guillermo Lorca lives and works in Santiago de Chile and is today a well-known artist of classical oil painting. He has developed his vision of narrative, figurative painting throughout the years. More recently, Lorca has been using Photoshop to create paintings based on digitally collaged images.
He mastered to not only use paint to illustrate (sur-)reality but can also make paint imitate materials.
Lorca’s ability to paint accurately loose as well as thick and thin can be appreciated especially in larger works. He likes to make the characters in a scale similar to the viewer’s. Sometimes the artist can’t help but make something very large. It’s satisfying for Lorca to be immersed in a painted world and a large format helps him achieve that objective.
In the past years he had several group and solo exhibitions. Currently his work is shown at the MOCO Museum in Barcelona, Spain.
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About the author
Jose Montero
MOTA MONTERO - Modern Artist
Mota Montero is a graphic designer and photographer with years of experience in the advertisement world. He is also an entrepreneur and loves architecture. In the past, he used to run a successful construction company.
However, he has dedicated his life to art because it makes sense to him and his lifestyle. Moreover, the “Corona Pandemic” was an opportunity for Mota to create a gallery that focuses on finding the best artists worldwide and promoting them to let them thrive. This gallery now features young artists and up-and-coming geniuses in the world of art.