Javier Aristu

Two of the activities I have always enjoyed the most are looking and thinking, so it is no surprise that my work has both a photographic side and a conceptual one. I am particularly interested in the idea of tension as a fundamental part of any relationship, of course between the basic attraction and repulsion or between content and form, but also between image and word, reality and chance or sense and nonsense.

After founding the design studio Aristu & Co (2005—25) and cofounding the cultural magazine WHAT (2012—22), both in Barcelona, in 2018 I found Ediciones Enderiz, a small publishing house focused on very limited editions, through which I make the books Perlas (2018), Curiosidades ilustradas (2019), Retrautos (2020), Former (2023), Worded Pictures (2024) and Los sudamericanos (2025).

In recent years I have been exhibiting and showing my work regularly, both individually and collectively, and some of my most conscious influences include Bruce Nauman, Piero Manzoni, Sophie Calle, Hans-Peter Feldmann, Stanley Kubrick, Luis Buñuel, Elliott Erwitt, Robert Frank, Erik Kessels, Mario Eskenazi, Tibor Kalman or Monty Python.

University of Barcelona
1992—1993

Elisava School of Engineering and Design
1988—1992

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 de Unx and Sansol and Burgui, Navarre, Spain

2023
Solo exhibition Mire Oiga...