Marcos Isamat (Barcelona, Spain, 1965) studied biology at the University of Edinburgh and obtained his PhD in Molecular Genetics from the University of Cambridge. He held research positions in the UK, France and Spain until 2003. His career in drawing and painting began long before his university days. Precocious draftsman, poster designer and illustrator in several publications, Isamat first exhibited his work on the neglected departmental museums of Cambridge University in 1991. His work has been subsequently shown in Barcelona, Bologna, Gerona, Madrid, Valladolid and international art fairs in Europe. He has worked extensively on landscapes, portraits, objects and nature. He is the creator of the 3D paper Meninas of the El Prado Museum and has collaborated with Spanish TV as a portrait artist and with Voxprima as a children’s book illustrator. For the last 30 years he has concentrated on pencil drawing, the simplest artist’s tool of infinite potential.

“My drawings almost always portray the synthesis of something I have observed in detail. An object or landscape I have watched for a long time, enough to be able to reimagine its dimensions, textures and movements, keeping to scale whenever possible and devoid of ornaments. I search for the geometries, symmetries, fugues or movements that define the subject of the drawing. A personal way of looking at common and everyday images, avoiding the spectacular and nailing its qualifying elegance. The resulting shades of grey from a pencil help me in this pursuit, as graphite on paper delivers just what this reductionism requires”