Santiago Martínez Peral

Self-directed Residency

Santiago Martínez Peral (b. Madrid, 1974) holds a degree in Fine Arts from the Complutense University of Madrid, where he completed his studies in painting (1998) and printmaking (1997), furthering his training with an Erasmus scholarship at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Venice in 1996.

His work has been exhibited in centers and galleries across Europe, Asia, and the Americas, and he has participated in international residencies in Portugal, China, Mexico, the Netherlands, Iceland, and Spain.

The work of Martínez Peral revolves around the figure: human and animal bodies that fragment, submerge, and expand across the pictorial space. His images draw nourishment from both Art History and Nature, with travel serving as one of his main creative engines. He approaches the classical genres of painting with a renewing spirit, convinced that creation demands a profound understanding of inherited tradition, while at the same time understanding it as a radical act of freedom.

For the artist, painting is, above all, vision. In a double sense: as a physical, optical experience, and as an apparition—a discovery of something new and unexpected that moves us and envelops us in its mystery. Martínez Peral works within the space where images are evocative and not entirely explainable, appealing more to sensuality than to logic.

He navigates through different pictorial languages: drawing that is at times lyrical and at others more expressionist and visceral, color as an autonomous
language—musical, vibrant, and evocative—and naturalistic representations, figures that inhabit ambiguous territories of pleasure and melancholy.

https://www.santiagomartinezperal.com/

https://www.instagram.com/santiagomartinezperal/

If you are in Madrid, stop by his upcoming solo exhibition @ipsofactostudio opening 10 Sept, 2026!