Oscar Santillán
b. 1980, Ecuador
Oscar Santillán is interested in connecting distant points: the sweat of a person with the beat of drums, paper made out of a medicinal tree with Nietzsche’s typewriter, or bringing together the breeze displaced by a running jaguar and a marble container.
Santillán began as a self-taught artist within the environment of Lalimpia, a collective he co-founded with other artists of his generation. After following different studies in Ecuador, a fellowship allowed him to pursue and obtain an MFA in Sculpture at VCU—Virginia Commonwealth University, US. He teaches at AKV|St.Joost, and he is a guest tutor at Sandberg Institute, both in The Netherlands.
Recent and upcoming projects include A Heavy Halo, a solo exhibition at RADIUS, Delft (the Netherlands), the HoltSmithson Foundation’s The Island Project: Point of Departure, along with Tacita Dean, Renée Green, Sky Hopinka, Joan Jonas between 2021 and 2026. He has also been commissioned projects by the Yokohama Triennial (Japan), Ballroom Marfa (USA), Bienal de Arte Paiz (Guatemala), Laboratorio de Arte Alameda (Mexico), and the Eli and Edithe Broad Museum (USA).