The Artist

José Manuel Ballester (Madrid, 1960)

This painter and photographer graduated in Fine Arts in 1984 from the Complutense University of Madrid. He received the 2010 National Photography Award. His artistic career started out in painting, with particular interest in the techniques of the Italian and Flemish schools of the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries. From 1990 on, he began to combine painting and photography. His numerous exhibitions notably include Setting Out (New York, 2003), Habitación 523 (Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, 2005), and Hidden Spaces (Royal Spanish Academy in Rome, 2012). He has participated in collective shows on numerous occasions at Arco, Art Chicago, Art Forum Germany, Paris Photo, and Art Miami, and in cities like Dallas, Paris, Miami, São Paulo, Dubai, Beijing, Shanghai, and Toronto, among many others.

He was awarded Spain’s 1999 National Engraving Prize, the 2006 Goya Villa de Madrid Painting Prize, and the Photography Prize for the Community of Madrid in 2008. In November 2010, he was awarded the National Photography Prize by the Ministry of Culture. The jury presented him with the award with a majority vote based on his career, his unique interpretation of architectural space and light, and his outstanding revitalization of photographic techniques.

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