Luis Olaso
b. 1986, Spain
Luis Olaso is a Spanish artist (b. 1986). He was initially self-taught, later studying Fine Arts at the University of the Basque Country. He currently lives and works in Bilbao.
Olaso’s large, abstract canvases possess an expressive power drawn from the artist’s feelings, state of mind, and personal views. He works from improvisation, and divides his process into two parts: Action and analysis; he paints impulsively, creating shapes, spots, and colour plans, and then observes what he has created for hours, trying to analyse what does and doesn’t work. In Olaso’s mind, this impulsive energy helps the work become fresher and more visceral, able to reach his internal feelings more effectively.
Often working with plant elements and human bodies, he is interested in the contrasts between order and chaos, the visual tension between colour, geometry, organic shapes, and accidents. Olaso never has a concrete idea of what he wants to transmit, instead he is principally interested in the idea that his painting speaks of himself, and as a result he considers all his work a dynamic self-portrait. He states that “my work is the result of how I am, how I work. I always do it unconsciously; we could say that it is a painting that is born from the irrational part of the brain.”