Sculptors

Lezama Perier, Patxi Xabier

Patxi Xabier Lezama Perier (20 June 1967, Zalla, Bizkaia) is a Basque sculptor and writer.

He is one of the most representative artists on the Basque scene. A creator who is part of the generation of contemporary Basque sculptors considered to be one of the main renovators of Basque sculpture in the second half of the 20th century. Vitally representative of the symbolic and mythological. The awareness of the importance of Basque culture (its origins, history and traditions), as well as the process of modernisation of folklore by the avant-garde to give a new look at ancestral issues.

The artist's work focuses mainly on Basque mythological sculpture. Although he is best known for his work in sculpture, he has stood out in the Basque cultural sphere thanks to his different talents as an artist, sculptor, writer and designer. Like the old masters of the best-known current of Basque art such as Jorge Oteiza, Eduardo Chillida, Agustín Ibarrola and Néstor Basterretxea. Surrealism differentiates him from those marked by abstraction and geometric tism. 

Around 1990, with his employment in the forge, he began to work with iron. He then embarked on a cycle of non-imitative sculptures, and his concern for Basque art and culture grew.

Each of his works poses a spatial problem that he tries to solve with the help of the material, according to its characteristics or properties. Amalur (2002) is his first abstract sculpture, a name of Basque origin which in Basque means ‘Mother Earth’ and is inspired by the mythology of the Basque people. He flees from the imitation of nature and goes in search of creation and invention.

In 2005, he opened a new stage of experimentation. Until then, his language was dominated by curved lines and now he will adopt more moving and restless surrealist rhythms, easily understood and sculpted in wood.

The scale in Totemism had been approached at the end of the 80s with his plastic experience in wood, a material which, due to its lighter weight, facilitated the increase in size and due to its soft contexture and lack of ductility, opened up a new experience in his ethno-cultural plastic investigation. At the same time, he developed an important activity in the field of literature. During the 1990s he researched the Basque language and the popular manifestations of his people. In 2016 he published ‘Basque Mythology’. A book on the interpretation of Basque mythology, it is his best-known text to date. In this book he defends Basque popular culture and its identity. In 2020 he alternates and tackles graphic design with a series of illustrations that narrate and recreate an illustrated book in which he unites Japanese culture and Basque art. 

He has exhibited his work in national and international exhibitions, making him an important reference in the world of Basque mythology. Among some of the numerous exhibitions where his work has been n is New York, organised by the Spanish Benevolent Society Gallery.

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