José María Casas
January the 7th, 1981, Mar del Plata, AR.

He studied Ceramics (from 1987 to 1989), Drawing (from 1989 to 1993) and Painting (from 1993 to 1997) with teacher Marcela Angera. During 2006 he has done workshops on painting analysiss with the Masters Ary Brizzi, Hencer Molina, Lydia Tarica, Susana Fedrano, Juan C. Lasser, Salvador Costanzo, Daniel Perez, and Eduardo Mac Entyre. He continued working with Master Hencer Molina during 2007 and 2008. In 2009 Casas went to Ernesto Ballesteros's workshop on artwork analysis at Mundo Dios. In 2010, he attended Sol del Rió and Leopoldo Estol's "Encuentros de Dialogos Con Artistas" at Bruzzone Museum.

Trying to avoid the usual, Jose Maria has developed a strong personal style that outstands for its shocking but clear use of color, the balance and equilibrium of his compositions which creates the feeling that "everything is in it's right place", and his painting's great expressionism. His approach to the art materials is goes trougth the experimental path, and his creations are strongly influenced by music.

His work plays with the multiplicity of interpretations. He wants it, he goes for it. Instead of closing and imposing, his work tries to open and liberate, so as to trigger thoughts and imagination. For this purpose the author, throughout his process on material experimentation and composition, has tried to crush shape, freeing both color and audience from structure. When there is, or seems to be, structure in his work, it has been purposely faked, as a game that tries to seduce the eyes for a few seconds, triggering an acknowledgment and identification attempt, which later vanishes to leave the painting, once again, on the grounds of multiple interpretations. This search guided Casas to experiment with different mediums, which allow him to break not only shapes but also the plane.

Since 2002, he has had 67 individual exhibitions, 94 collective exhibitions and participated in 15 art fairs and 2 biennial exhibitions. His work has been shown in Argentina (Buenos Aires, La Plata, Rosario, Mar del Plata, Tres Arroyos, Quilmes, Monte Hermoso, Ushuaia, Necochea, Mendoza, Rio Gallegos, El Hoyo, Anquincila, San Jose, Quimilí, Resistencia, Salta Capital, San Salvador de Jujuy), Canada (Montreal), Denmark (Aars), Scotland (Edimburgh), Spain (Barcelona, Cordoba, and Ferrol), United States (New York), Honduras (Tegucigalpa), Ireland (Dublin), Italy (Bari, Ferrara, and Trani), Mexico (Mazatlán), Puerto Rico (San Juan de), Turkey (Istanbul and Ankara), and Uruguay (Maldonado).

His work has been reviewed by the following remarkable critics: Rafael Squirru, Alberto Giudici, Julio Sapollnik, Diana Castelar, Cesar Magrini, Pilar Altilio, Fortunato Roffe, Agustín Marangoni, all from Argentina; and Paola Trevisan (Italy), Francisco Arroyo Ceballos (Spain), Alberto Grossi (Italy), and Alison Rogers (USA).

His work can be found at private collections in Argentina, Chile, Spain, United States, Honduras, England, Mexico, Panama, and Thailand; at public collections in Argentina, Honduras, Italy and Mexico; and at Galleries in Argentina, United States, Italy and Turkey.

Besides his artistic duties, he is one of the organizers of Mar del Plata's Contemporary Art Week ([link]). During 2007 and 2008 he also organized "MODERNA": International Art Fair of Mar del Plata, along with local colleagues. Moreover, he writes about contemporary art for magazines "Brando", "Ramona", and "Viento del Sur" journal. He has a column in "Marplanautas" radio show. He directs "Arte Mar del Plata" blog ([link]) and "Postal 7600", a digital magazine on contemporary art.