SANTI MOIX
Barcelona, Spain b.1960
Born in Barcelona in 1960, Santi Moix's work is characterized by accumulation and fragmentation, sensuality and an acute sense of form. He mines literature and Art History for scenes that provide points of departure for his fantastical abstractions. At fourteen years old he studied in Paris, followed by a period in Italy where he met and socialized with Federico Fellini. He held his first solo show in 1981 in a small space in Sant Cugat in Catalonia, and in 1986 he bought his first flight ticket to New York with the money made from the selling of one of his paintings. The artist made his first foray into the world of professional art with various exhibitions in Japan in the 80s. Then it was the moment of Africa where he approached pottery and sculpture, activities that he considers complementary to his painting practice. After the African experience, the artist moved to New York permanently, although he frequently returns to Barcelona as he likes taking his European cultural roots of great importance. Influenced by masters like Delacroix, Velazquez, El Greco, Picasso, Mirò, Pollock and the artist Mutzuo Takahashi, a mysterious Japanese painter who befriended him while living in Asia, Santi Moix also considers the world of literatures a veritable important source of inspiration for his painting practice. One of his most recent solo show on Catalan soil was, for example, built around the adventures of Huckleberry Finn, with an installation of sketches and a large wall drawing inspired by Mark Twain’s novel. Moix achieved international recognition in 2013 when Prada commissioned a large mural for the Soho store in New York, designed by Rem Koohlas, a work that brought together various techniques and languages and which represents his aesthetic approach to large scale work. He was awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation fellowship in 2002.