I paint people, seeking to go beyond the surface of representation and bring out the singular beauty and character of the individual, as well as his or her socio-cultural identity. I paint directly from life and with natural light, ideally North light, which is soft and stable. My work is a slow undertaking, done in collaboration with the person. It is part of my ethnographic investigations.

I also draw social situations and interactions in light-hearted sketches and playful illustrations.

I work on commission. Please contact me directly for inquiries.

Background

As the offspring of abstract painter Josette Dacosta, I grew up with art, and in museums and galleries.

In 2002, after obtaining my PhD in Social and Political Science at the European University Institute, I focused on training in the fine arts. I studied at the Charles Cecil Studios in Florence, Italy, and the Florence Academy of Art, to acquire the techniques of naturalist-realist painting. I then went to Spain, where I painted with Guillermo Muñoz Vera, in Madrid, and Antonio López García, in Pamplona.

I chose then to specialise in portraiting individual people, a testimony to the unique humanity of each one of us. In 2008, I was commissioned to draw the portraits of 18 bertsulariak, Basque improvised-poetry singers of Iparralde, the northern/French Basque Country.

Wherever I go, I paint members of the Basque diaspora. Currently based in Jerusalem, my models form part of the diversity of the region.

I do public performances of my portrait painting. With the audience, and in collaboration with the persons who pose for me, we reflect on the process of representation. Such performances have taken place in the American Natural History Museum of New York City, the Chicago Arts Incubator, the Blanton Museum of Art in Austin, Texas, and most recently in Jerusalem. Painting people from life invites reflection on the face-to-face and the development of knowledge of the ‘other’.

Performances

2016. Willy Brandt Center, Jerusalem. ‘Portrait painting as fair perception’, workshop for young students on painting each other.

2015. Beita, Social Based Art Center in the City, Jerusalem. Live portrait painting of volunteer models in public over the course of one month.

2014. Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX, in collaboration with the Department of Anthropology of the University of Austin, Texas. Live portrait painting of anthropologist Katie Stewart (UT-Austin).

2013. Chicago Arts Incubator, Chicago, IL, with the collective Ethnographic Terminalia. Live portrait painting of anthropologist Tom Blakely (Penn State University).

2013. American Natural History Museum, New York City, with the collective Ethnographic Terminalia and the Mead Film Festival. Live portrait painting of the anthropologists Fred Myers (New York University) and Audra Simpson (Columbia University).

2010. Ecole Supérieure des Technologies Industrielles, ‘24 heures d’innovation’. I illustrated live the presentations of conference participants, projected in real time on a big public screen.

Solo Shows

2014. ‘Slow Ethnography’, Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX, USA.

2013 – 2014 ‘Identities’, Metro Gallery, Reno City Hall, NV, USA. Exhibition of recent landscape and portrait paintings.

2013. ‘Intimacy’, Sheppard Contemporary Gallery, Reno, NV, USA.

2013. ‘Seeing Ethnography’, American Natural History Museum, New York City, USA.

2011. ‘Lekuko jendea / Of People and Places’, History Museum of Biarritz, France.

2010. ‘Iparraldeko Bertsularien Portretak / Portraits of French Basque improvised singers’, Larraldea, Saint Pée sur Nivelle, and Xilaba, Saint Jean de Luz, France.

2010. ‘Realities / Errealitateak’, Sala Juan de Lizarazu, Urretxu, Spain.

2010. ‘Painting Reality / Errealitatea tintatzea’, La Rotonde Gallery, Saint Jean de Luz, France.

Collective Shows

2013 ‘Exhibition as Residency: Art, Anthropology, Collaboration’, Chicago Arts Incubator, Chicago, IL, USA.

2013. ‘Open Spaces and Special Places: the art of conservation’, for the Nevada Land Trust, Wilbur May Museum, Reno, Nevada, USA.

2012. ‘Un Civil Liberties’, Rainshadow Community College, Reno, USA.

2012. ‘Itzal Aktiboaren Lagunak’, Gallery Dacosta, Saint Jean Pied de Port, France.

2011. ‘Bryanston Now’, The Gallery on Cork Street, London, UK.

2010. ‘Regards’, Museum of Guéthary, France.

2010. ‘Les magiciens de l’art au Pays basque’, Villa Ducontenia, Saint Jean de Luz, France.

2010. ‘Impulse: the choices of an art lover’, Gallery Dacosta, Saint Jean Pied de Port, France.

2010. ‘One world, two visions / Un Mundo, Dos Visiones’, Escuela de Música del Valle de Egués, Pamplona, Spain.

Residencies

2014. Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX, with the Department of Anthropology of the University of Austin, Texas. ‘Slow Ethnography’.

2013. Chicago Arts Incubator, Chicago, IL, with the collective Ethnographic Terminalia. ‘Exhibition as Residency: Art, Anthropology, Collaboration’.

2013. American Natural History Museum, New York City, with the collective Ethnographic Terminalia and the Mead Film Festival. ‘Seeing Ethnography’.

2012. Dusty Roads Artists’ Residency, Saint Mary’s Art Center, Virginia City, NV, USA.

2008. Arteleku Contemporary Arts Center, San Sebastian, Spain.

Awards

2013. Junior Faculty Research and Artistry Grant, College of Liberal Arts, UNR, USA.

2012. Junior Faculty Research and Artistry Grant, College of Liberal Arts, UNR, USA.

2012. Scholarly and Creative Activities Grant, College of Liberal Arts, UNR, USA.

2009. Tintori Painting Scholarship, Florence Academy of Art, Italy.

2007. Prize for Best Young Painter, Town Hall of Saint Jean de Luz, France.

2006. Prize for Best Young Contribution to Basque Culture, Eusko Ikaskuntza and the City Hall of Bayonne, France.

2005. First Prize in landscape painting competition, Saint Palais, France.

Portraits (oil)

Portraits (Charcoal)

Self-portraits

Landscapes

Still-lifes

Bertsulari Project

Illustrations

‘Marie-Louise Lekumberry and her father’. Oil on canvas. 48 x 62 inches. 2012.

Portraits in oil

Portraits are my main focus in art. Face-to-face with another person, they involve spending intimate time together and intense collaboration. This process is a deep inquiry into the person painted, and our evolving relationship.

‘Lana’. Charcoal on Roma paper. 20 x 30 inches. 2004.

Portraits in charcoal

The first known painters used charcoal in their cave drawings thousands of years ago. Made from burnt vine twigs, it is very malleable, allowing you to make bold dark strokes as well as delicate light ones. Charcoal forces me to concentrate on the essence of painting: the nuances of light and shadow.

‘Self-Portrait in Florence’. Charcoal on watercolor paper. 48 x 20 inches. 2010.

Self-portraits

I paint a self-portrait at least once a year. They help me reflect on who I have become.

‘Looking East of Fallon, Nevada’. Oil on canvas. 4 x 6 inches. 2012.

Landscapes

Spaces, natural or human made, have always been an interest of mine. Many of the people I have painted, I feel, have been shaped by the land in which they live. So painting this land is a way for me to understand them.

‘Bread and water’. Oil on canvas mounted on wood panel. 4 x 6 inches. 2010.

Still-life

Painting still-lives is an opportunity to contemplate things. It is also an exercise in concentrating on form and figure and the interplay of light and shade, and nuances in color – all in the absence of movement

‘Ernest Alkhat’. Charcoal on Roma paper. 20 x 30 inches. 2008.

Bertsulari Project

In 2008, I was commissioned to produce the charcoal portraits of bertsularis, Basque improvised-poetry singers of Iparralde, the French Basque Country. The resulting seventeen portraits were exhibited during Xilaba, the regional bertsu championships in Saint Jean de Luz in 2010. The portraits are on permanent viewing at Larraldea, in Saint Pée sur Nivelle.

‘Painting Anthropologist Audra Simpson at the American Natural History Museum, NYC’, October 2013.

Illustrations

Illustrations are my way of exploring other states of being and drawing. They also help me as a naturalist-realist painter and anthropologist to playfully reflect on situations in which I work. For example, I often draw a scene from a bird’s eye view, thus offering a new perspective to the instance in which I am engrossed as painter and anthropologist.

Some years, I also keep a blog where I produce an illustration every day: 365days365drawings and linenlight.

I also occasionally contribute to publications. Most recently I had my own column of political cartoons (Zoe Bray-ren Begi Klixka) in the Basque weekly Herria.