Zapata Garcés, Jorge Esteban. He was born in 1977 in the second most important city of Colombia, Medellin. He spent the leisure of my youth interested in gallery and museum exhibitions. He started to develop an interest in painting when he was 17 years old. Observing comic books he realized that he could create his own drawings and paintings, imitating the figures with color pencils, water colors and oil.
In 1997 he started to study architecture but what he really wanted was to become a painter. In 1999 he was accepted at the National University School where he started the Fine Arts Program. While he was studying, he organized various solo exhibitions: Solo Exhibition, Iconica, Comfenalco Gallery, Medellin, Colombia, 2003; Solo Exhibition, Encounters, Hotel Belfort Gallery, Medellin, Colombia, 2001; Solo Exhibition, Searches, Cerro Nutibara Gallery, Medellin, Colombia, 1999. In 2008 he participated in two group exhibitions: “Hearst Competitive Exhibition”, Hearst Center for the Arts, Cedar Falls, Iowa and the “Annual Student juried Exhibition”, Kammerick Art Building Gallery, University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, Iowa, where he obtained a mention.
His art thesis was titled “Iconica”; it was a series of paintings with flat colored surfaces. Images from magazines and comic books were the source of inspiration. During his undergraduate studies he experimented with all types of techniques and styles. He has been continuing experimenting through out these years with different possibilities that allows him to materialize his ideas in painting. He has found in Collage an interesting way to express these ideas because allows him to correlate images with different meanings. In 2003 he traveled for the first time to America to study English. He went back to Colombia where he continued painting and teaching art: Luis Amigo School, Medellin, Colombia, 2007 and Jorge Eliecer Gaitan School, Bogota, 2006. Currently, he is a graduate painting student in the Department of Art, University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, IA.
:: Besharat Gallery ::
175 Peters St. SW | Atlanta, GA 30313
Phone: (404) 524-4781
Fax: (404) 577-3630
Mobile: (404) 434-5555
Hours are by appointment. On fourth fridays
we are always open from 10 am until 10 pm.
