Javier Arce (Santander, 1973) has a degree with Honors in Fine Arts at the Basque Country University and received his Master in Sculpture from the Wimbledon School of Fine Art. Arce has been artist-in-residence at the ISCP in New York. He was awarded by Marcelino Botín Foundation in 2006 and was recipient of the Leonardo Grant by BBVA Foundation in 2018 and the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant in 2024. Recent institutional shows include ENREDOS II: Nuno da Luz, en el Centro Botín, Santander, 2025; ¡Bon Hiver! Pinturas estacionais, Fundación DIDAC, 2024; Desde la naturaleza, Sala Robayera, 2023; Marès….un contrato natural; CCA Kunsthalle Andratx, 2022; Sobre cómo puede flotar una uva en el océano, Centro de Arte Pepe Espaliú, 2019; Orden Natural, Centro de Arte Alcobendas, 2017. His work is included in numerous collections such as la de Fundación Marcelino Botín, ARTIUM, IVAM, Museo de Bellas Artes de Santander, MUSAC, La Caixa, CAB or La Caixa Foundation Contemporary Art Collection.
Javier Arce’s work is defined by a deep investigation into drawing, understood not merely as a technique but as an expanded language within contemporary art. His practice is oriented toward exploring the boundaries of this discipline, delving into its specificity and its potential in constant dialogue with other media. In his more recent work, the symbolic and geographical anchoring of his practice stands out, centered on a shepherd’s cabin in the mountains of Cantabria, where he currently lives. From this rural and peripheral setting, Arce crafts a critical and poetic perspective on the tensions between the local and the global, the personal and the political, the natural landscape and contemporary conflicts. This specific location enables him to address essential themes such as identity, from an intimate yet incisive viewpoint. His work engages in a constant dialogue between individual desire and collective impulse.
