BIO
Norberto Olmedo was born in Pontevedra in 1962, where he currently resides.
He grew up in his grandparents’ house on Michelena Street 36. On the first floor of that house was the photographic laboratory of Manuel Pintos, and on the ground floor, the Portela Printing-Bookstore, owned and managed by his grandfather, Ramón Portela.
From an early age, he felt a strong attraction to the world of Graphic Arts and showed great interest in the happenings within the family printing workshop. He frequented this environment daily, where he had his first contact with lithographic inks. As a child, he watched in amazement as his grandfather pulled lead letters from a drawer cabinet and then assembled them into a wooden tray.
In that workshop, one machine, in particular, caught the attention of the young boy: the guillotine. Its blade cut paper with immaculate precision. Gray and black dominated everything that happened there. A large frosted window filtered the light, creating a veiled atmosphere that permeated everything. Sheets of paper were stacked in columns, and it was on those sheets that his drawing adventure began, with his first scribbles. The Pintos laboratory always had its doors open, and there were machines there too. The curtains hanging from the ceiling served as backdrops for photographing locals. The walls of the studio were adorned with many photographic portraits developed by Pilar Pintos (the photographer’s daughter). At the back of the studio was the laboratory, a magical place where chemicals worked their magic. Those sheets of paper were immersed in liquids, and as if by magic, ghostly faces gradually appeared under the watchful eye of the amazed child. The next step was to hang them with clips on a cord, where they would remain until fully dry.
Grays in the printing shop, grays in the photographic laboratory, grays on TV. A childhood of grays, everywhere one looked, the world back then was gray.
The years passed, and the introverted boy became a teenager. The bookstore became his best ally; through it, he discovered reading and found a place to escape. Curiosity led him to discover other possible worlds: *El Capitán Trueno*, *Tintín*, *Los Hollister*, Jules Verne, Emilio Salgari, and more. At 18, he moved to Barcelona and enrolled in the Escola Massana, where he earned a diploma in applied arts and mural techniques while specializing in stained glass. During this period, he trained in engraving and screen printing, in addition to studying painting. He attended workshops with Ernesto Fontecilla, Tom Carr, and América Sánchez. In Barcelona, he began to visit galleries regularly, a routine he maintained every month. He became passionate about cinema, frequently attending auteur film screenings. During these years, he traveled around Europe, visiting museums and international exhibitions.
He started exhibiting regularly in various group shows. While in Barcelona, he was a founding member of the ART-XIU collective, a gallery-workshop project subsidized by the Department of Culture of the Generalitat, from which he later disassociated himself. He received a scholarship from the Diputación de Pontevedra in 1983, 1984, and 1985. In 1988, he received financial aid from the Xunta de Galicia. He attended workshops with Lucio Muñoz and Eduardo Arroyo. His first solo exhibition took place at the Lola Anglada gallery in Barcelona, followed by shows at Casa de la Parra (his first exhibition in Galicia), Marta Moore in Seville, and AD-HOC in Vigo, a gallery with which he began to work regularly and with which he participated in ARCO in successive years, as well as other art fairs in Guadalajara (Mexico), France, and Portugal. He was selected to participate in the Rome Biennale, Art-Toyama in Japan, the Universal Exposition of Seville («Imaxes do desexo») at the Arenal halls, and various national and international group exhibitions.
Norberto Olmedo understands painting as a series of cycles he has articulated over the years. Specifically, five series have occupied his work. Conceptually, he explores the idea of evil in our society and the consequences it produces in different areas (death, decay, loss, absence, the apocalyptic). These are recurring themes throughout his career. His work denounces the tearing impact of human traces on society in its most raw form. «Evil,» as such, is perverse. Those who practice and enjoy it are psychopaths. It has many faces, becoming so sophisticated that it can sometimes be difficult to distinguish. Injustice has been a common behavior throughout history. Observing its results is terrifying, but even more disappointing is witnessing the lack of scruples and absence of remorse in those who execute it.
Norberto Olmedo began as an abstract painter. In his early works, there is a significant focus on materials, with a strong interest in textures and their relationship with the medium. Later, his work evolved toward other realms, and he definitively abandoned materiality, understanding that it carried a sensory load that distracted from more transcendental issues. From the 1990s onward, his work became more austere, and although texture still played an evident role, his use of color became more restrained, leading to a more austere and less dynamic approach. This style progressively evolved into a more ethereal painting, where glazes made his work more fluid, as seen in his «Ozono» series. This would be his last foray into the realm of abstraction, which he ultimately left behind.
The genesis of his work has always been based on rigorous documentation. Cinema, music, and literature converge as tools that help him articulate content and states that favor the future development of his imagination. His work is slow, measured, and the result of deep reflection, with no concessions to gratuitousness or anything that distances it from the essential. Among his personal interests are reading, mythology, symbolism, cinema, music, sports, and travel.
In 2020, he left the art circuit, although he continues to work regularly in his studio. He is currently working on a series of oil portraits inspired by Soviet GULAG prisoners, a project to which he has dedicated the last six years and which will be presented to the public for the first time at the XXXII Biennial of Art in Pontevedra in 2025.
