Javier Aristu

Two of the activities I always have enjoyed the most are looking and thinking, so it does not surprise me that my work has a purely photographic side and other conceptual, which can include from graphic work to objects, videos, series or installations. I am especially interested in the idea of tension as a fundamental part of any relationship, of course between attraction and repulsion or content and form, but also between image and word, reality and chance or meaning and absurdity. Some of my most conscious influences are Bruce Nauman, Eduardo Mendoza, Elliott Erwitt, Erik Kessels, Hans-Peter Feldmann, Luis Buñuel, Mario Eskenazi, Monty Python, Piero Manzoni, Sophie Calle, Stanley Kubrick or Tibor Kalman.

After founding the design and communication studio Aristu & Co in 2005 and cofounding the cultural magazine WHAT in 2012 in Barcelona, in 2017 I found Ediciones Enderiz, a small publishing house focused on very limited editions, with which I produce the books Perlas (2017), Curiosidades ilustradas (2019), Retrautos (2020), Former (2023), Worded Pictures (2024) and Los sudamericanos (2025).

In recent years the artistic practice has become my main activity and I regularly publish or exhibit its results, both individually and ...

UNED—Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia
Degree in Art History
2026—

UB—Universidad de Barcelona
Master in Branding and Packaging
1992—1993

Elisava School of Engineering and Design
Degree in Graphic Design
1988—1992

2026
Solo exhibition Dantza, Sala de Armas de la Ciudadela, Pamplona, Spain

2026
Exhibition of the book Los sudamericanos at the first Sur ArtexArte photobook festival, Buenos Aires, Argentina

2026
Los sudamericanos is acquired by the Complutense University to become part of the artistic publications collection of its Faculty of Fine Arts, Madrid, Spain

2025
Collective exhibition DelicARTessen 25, Galeria Esther Montoriol, Barcelona, Spain

2025
Solo exhibition Disparos lejanos, Sala de Armas de la Ciudadela, Pamplona, Spain

2024
Collective exhibition DelicARTessen 23, Galeria Esther Montoriol, Barcelona, Spain

2024
Former and Worded Pictures are acquired by the Complutense University to become part of the artistic publications collection of its Faculty of Fine Arts, Madrid, Spain

2024
Solo exhibition Retrautos, Casa del Vinculo, Puente la Reina, Navarre, Spain

2024
Solo exhibition Retrautos, Sala de Armas de la Ciudadela, Pamplona, Spain

2024
Grant for the Frontones photographic series, Programa Innova by Caja Navarra Foundation and La Caixa Foundation, Pamplona, Spain

2023
Collective exhibition DelicARTessen 22, Galeria Esther Montoriol, Barcelona, Spain

2023
Collective and traveling exhibition Proyecto Kul, San Martin...