S a n t i a g o C o r r a l, Mexico

Santiago was born in Valle de Bravo, Mexico on July 25th, 1974. Coming from a family of artists (his mother, brother, sister and cousin are all painters), it seemed natural to him to start drawing and then painting at a very young age. It never occurred to Santiago that he would be anything other than an artist. Visiting museums in Europe and Mexico from a very early age in the company of his mother and siblings educated his eye and the rest just came naturally. Santiago guess he can be considered as an auto-didactic artist.

Santiago admires many artists from the past and the present, but those that come immediately to mind would be Gerhard Richter for his ability to switch from beautiful realism to superb abstraction, both with magnificent technique; Peter Doig for the way he uses and applies pigment and Antonio Lopez, one of the great realist artist.

Santiago sometimes locks himself in and paints a whole day.  However, normally, his best work is done in a three to four-hour period. Santiago never starts out with a pre-determined idea in mind. Santiago always has a camera with him. He sometimes may have a vague idea of what he is looking for but not always. Only after finding an image that strikes him does he then take a photograph.

Critic of Santiago Corral By Margaret Failoni 

 Not that it ever really left, but figurative painting is once again in the forefront of many present day museum exhibitions. No longer are we dealing with romantic landscapes of Hubert Roberts. Present day figurative artists are more concerned with subjects closely involving the world we live in. Be they psychological studies of human behavior as painted by Erik Fischel, mood genres by David Salle, or mood swing portraits by Gerhard Richter, who speaking of mood swings, manages to switch back and forth from mysterious somber abstracts to the figurative. We are seeing more and more studies of present day society and the disturbing world we live in. It is as if realist figurative painting has become a diary, dotting down emotions and moods which are rarely captured in photography and therein lies its magic. Santiago Corral as an artist, is a perfect example of this phenomena. He paints with a fervor rarely seen; the ‘selfie’ mania which has become so prevalent, the foodie obsession, the violence in the streets, ever more precocious youth and the tech toys we can’t live without, all subject matter for his easel. Corral is a hand glider and a pilot and is used to seeing the world from high altitudes. It is not unusual that he chooses points of view in his paintings that have to do with looking down onto the world rather than across at it, and this ‘habit’ if you will, gives a different sense of drama to the work. His landscapes are often presented through a hazy light, a mist; could it be mist or is it smog? An urban scene sometimes seen through rain or fire; Portraits are never just pretty. As lovely as the painting and the sitter may be, he always captures a sense of uneasiness, of impatience, as if the sitter would rather be someplace else, and this injects magic into what could otherwise be just another portrait. Never vulgar, a subtle sensuality prevails in all his nudes, underlying his love and respect for the female mystique. What is there not to admire in this superb body of work, created by an experienced, cultured man of the world? 

Read the complete article on Margaret Failoni (Curator) presenting a brilliant artist Santiago Corral (Mexico) in the ACS Magazine November/December 2016 issue on page 192 at http://www.acs-mag.com/acs-mag-nov-dec-2016.  Published by Renée LaVerné Rose (ACS Publisher & Editor-in-Chief).