Artworks

 

 

Biography

 

Santos Montes was born in Santander, in 1949; he moved to Barcelona in 1993 where he currently works. His work consists in series of images treated with such obsessive perfectionism that he rarely considers them finished.

 

According to the artist, people in the north “have a particular way of interacting with the sea, the beach, or the light.” Some of his work is focused on the beaches, cliffs and “natural cathedrals” of Northern Spain. Places that are often revealed only during the summer, in the scarce hours of low tide. By doing this, Santos introduces us to the personal search of a “non-place outside time and space.”

 

The author still uses analogue photography, alternating between old cameras of questionable condition in order to achieve unpredictable outcomes. He also alternates between the thrill of the ephemeral moments of shooting with the long, painful and reflective hours of laboratory work.

 

Santos Montes’s work has been internationally recognized, and often exhibited in France. His work has been presented at the Joan Miró Foundation in Palma de Mallorca, Museo Universitario de Alicante, Caja Cantabria, Museum of Teruel and the Collection of the Community of Madrid, as well as in the contemporary art collections of the Murugame Museum in Japan.