KEKE VILAVELDA

Keke Vilabelda

Valencia, Spain, 1986
Lives and works in Valencia, Spain.

His work is based on a conception of painting as a way of understanding the world. Specifically, it focuses on processes of construction and transformation of the landscape and the contemporary urban space. Through a pictorial vision, he investigates our relationship with the environment and news ways of observing it. His works are constructed using the interaction of multiple proprietary techniques and a wide range of materials, as well as photographic and digital media. Each process, each material used, reflects the heterogeneous nature of its context, revealing to us its essence in the details, in the beauty of the accident, in the trace of the passage of time. His work invites us to understand the possibilities of painting: from its materiality to its capacity for recording and memory.

Keke Vilabelda graduated with a BBAA at the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia and has an MFA from the Central Saint Martin’s College of Art & Design in London.

Among his individual exhibitions stand out: Common Ground at NOW Gallery (Lima, 2022), Galería Ponces + Robles (Madrid, 2022) Galería Karen Huber (Mexico City, 2022),Grau Projekt (Melbourne, 2019); Materia Transitoria, Galería Karen Huber (Mexico City, 2018); Estratos y Sedimentos, Kir Royal Gallery (Madrid, 2017); Acid-House, Plecto EAC (Medellin, 2016) and Brand New Ruins, Rodríguez Gallery (Poznan, 2015).

Collectively he has been part of more than thirty exhibitions, including: Matter/Affect, curated by Susana Ventura at NO·NO Gallery (Lisboa, 2022); From Abstraction to Abstraction at Stefan Gierowski Foundation (Warsaw, 2022); Punto de destello, curated by Pily Estrada at Ponce+Robles (Madrid, 2022); Tienda de memorias, curated by Nicolás Bourriaud at Casa Wabi (Puerto Escondido, 2021); Colectiva at Galería Karen Huber (Mexico City, 2021); Little great paintings at Stephane Simoens (Belgium, 2020); Festival ¡Viva Villa! curated by Cécile Debray at Collection Lambert (Avignon, 2020); Notebook on Cities, curated by Domenico de Chirico at Rodríguez Gallery (Poznan, 2019); Opening exhibition at Shede Art Center (Chongqing, 2018);  BluePrints at Artelli Gallery (Antwerp, 2018).

In 2020 he was part of the Residency at Fundación Miró Mallorca. In 2019 he was a fellow of the residence Casa de Velázquez in Madrid and in 2017 he was part of Casa Wabi residence in Puerto Escondido (Mexico).

Keke Vilabelda was awarded many prizes and scholarships among which: Fist Prize, National Painting Contest Juan Francés, Xátiva, (2022); Second Prize, III Bienal de Pintura M.Isabel Comenge. Fundación JJCC. (Valecia, 2022) First place, at Maniel Foundation (Valencia, 2016); Selected for the Zone 6 Program of Luis Adelantado (Mexico City, 2016); Scholarship for the Creation of Visual Arts, INJUVE program of the Government of Spain (2015); Scholarship to Artistic Projects Alfons Roidg, Provincial Council of Valencia (2014); Saatchi NEW SENSATIONS 2011, Victoria House (Londres, 2011); Prize BMW, Centro Cultural “La Vaguada” (Madrid, 2010) and was selected in the Guasch Coranty Foundation International Painting Award.