Eucaliptos y Niebla / Pino Insignis (from THe Series Nostos)

Unai San Martin

In the last few years I have been refining my vision about landscape through images that are tangible and vague at the same time. I am interested in work that transcends the actual place and leads the spectator into a mythic realm. Nature does have a way to express its thoughts through shapes and light, and my goal is to convey a timeless atmosphere, an inner landscape that inhabits the human experience. I aspire to give a dreamlike attention to the things occurring in the landscape, making a monument of the ephemeral. The influences of writers such as Thoreau in his book Walking and Looking at how landscape has been interpreted in painting, for example in Greco's skies, left a mark on my work and on how scenery is recreated through the human mind.

Unai San Martín
Preface to the catalogue of the exhibition Nostos,
curated by María Millan at Kutza Fundaxioa, Spain, 2022

Specifications / Credits

Title: Eucaliptos y Niebla, California
Artist: Unai San Martín
Year: 2020
Process: Hand-pulled photogravure
Photogravure: Unai San Martín
Edition: unkown
Print Size: 15 13/16 x 8 3/4 in
Image Size: 9 11/16 x 13 1/2 in
Collection: Unai San Martin

Unai San Martin (b.1964, Basque Country) is an artist and gravure printer. Painters and writers of the romantic era have strongly influenced his work. Although he sometimes explores current digital techniques, he often does so in combination with historical processes such as photogravure. He exhibited in the Spanish pavilion of the International Biennial Fair in Ljubljana (Slovenia) in 1999, the Cameron Gallery in San Francisco and Foto España in 2000, Kln Art Fair in Cologne in 2001, The AIPAD Photography Show in New York and SFMoMA. In addition, his work is represented in numerous museums and collections in the United States and Spain, such as the Reina Sofía Museum, the Congress of Deputies, and the National Library. In 1991, he received the First Prize for Engraving at the Gure Artea contest, the residency scholarship at the Kala Art Institute of Berkley in 1997, in 2001 an Honorable Mention at the National Engraving and Graphic Art Award, and in 2002 he won the National Award for Printmaking of Spain to the best work by Figure. For more information, visit https://www.unaisanmartin.com