José Lopez Vergara was born in Mexico City in 1994 and raised in Madrid, Spain. In 2003 Vergara had an accident that permanently impaired the movement of his right arm. During a long recovery period he was encouraged to cultivate his interest in drawing and develop his innate artistic abilities. José spent his teenage years painting murals with spray paint and creating hyper realistic drawings with colored pencils. Having explored different creative paths, finally his interests led him to oil painting. His desire to learn traditional techniques eventually guided him to the Angel Academy of Art in Florence, Italy. Widely known realist painters Michael John Angel and Jared Woznicki mentored Vergara from 2016 to 2021.
After he completed the program at the Angel Academy of Art he went on to study at Grand Central Atelier in Long Island, New York. Vergara’s work centers on the search for an idealized representation of everyday life, current events and universal emotion. He’s influenced by art from many cultures of the past and present. He finds beauty in the first representations of the human figure and the lack of literal naturalism found in caves and medieval paintings. Vergara often uses the backgrounds of his paintings to insert landscapes or figurative details in a various historical styles to propel the narrative for his figures. Although his realist technique requires a strict methodology and rational thinking, his compositions rely on subconscious impulses and demand an abstract expression. His interest in the silhouette and minimal design plays a central role in his work and continues to open many paths for exploration.
José has been interviewed and featured in the Huffington Post and Juxtapoz Magazine amongst other renowned online journals. His work can be found in private collections in Europe, Mexico and the U.S. including the permanent collection of the New Salem Museum in Massachusetts. Jose currently lives and works in his studio in Madrid, Spain.
Below are some selected works from his solo exhibition “Fortvna”:
