Julio Lavallén was born in Concordia, Entre Ríos, Argentina in 1957. He settled in Buenos Aires and in 1989 traveled to Madrid, Spain where he lived for ten years. In 1999 he returned to Buenos Aires, where he currently lives and works.
A prolific artist, Julio works largely with the human figure, particularly ordinary people, as well as the world around him. Often characters are presented isolated within their environment and are humble characters, forgotten by society. He explores different techniques such as the use of dripping, the open line or sfumato (the technique of allowing tones and colors to shade gradually into one another, producing softened outlines or hazy forms), scratches and strokes with very gestural sweeps.
His work can be described as cultured, sensitive and refined, and especially his latest production, which has been compared to the work of Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele. But while they interpreted the morbid refinement of the bourgeois fin de siécle Europe, he discovers beauty in the everyday world and within a wide social spectrum. Julio’s natural drawing skill ranks his work with the most gifted of Argentinian artists. Besides his painting and drawing he also is known for his sculptural works and installations.
Julio has been widely exhibited, including at Sotheby’s New York, Praxis Gallery in New York and Buenos Aires, Art Expo Javit’s Center in New York, as well as galleries in Maine, the San Francisco Bay Area, Madrid, the East West Gallery in London and Geneva.
Source: Adriana Laurenzi, Historian and Art Critic specializing in Argentinian art, faculty of National University of Buenos Aires and University of Salvador.
