Profile of the artist

Iñaki Villanueva Ortega was born in Pamplona in June 1981. His relationship with the woodcarving started in a self-taught way when he was only 13.
He studied Sculpture in the Art school of Pamplona from 2004 to 2006 and did an intership in Koke Ardaiz’s workshop. In 2007 he traveled to Florence (Italy) to work in Bartolozzi e Maioli’s workshop thanks to the Leonardo scolarship that he got offered. In 2008 he became a profesional sculptor when the Berriozar Council asked him to do a monolith to commemorate the thousand years of its History.

A part from this, he also does restoring as a stonecutter. At the end of 2013 he set his workshop ready to give lectures. Even though his workshop is located in Aristegui he has always felt from Berriozar.

In addition to working the Wood he also works stone, iron and molds. To end with, we should add that he is also the lyricist and Singer of the band “Khous” from Berriozar.

Iñaki Villanueva, The instinct of life

Iñaki’s work has its own life. So much so well, that when the artist is infront of a tree, of which our inexperienced eyes can just see branches, roots, ridges and grooves, he can see the life beating inside of it. It’s maybe because of the effect of his time in Italy that Iñaki remembers Miguel Ángel, and knows that he has to make that life sprout out, cull it out of the materialand show it to us, because other way we wouldn’t be able to appreciate it.

His sculptures have the key to create a speech, making them interconected from just an independent pieces, as it happens to the grat atist´s work. The organic shapes, the predominant human image, the taste for natural materials like stone and wood or the way of working with some expressiveness are the own characteristics of the artist.

However, all these characteristics could be recapitulated in the following idea:

The instict of life. When Iñaki Works either the Wood or the stone these come alive in its sculptures, in the same way as in Miguel Angel’s work, Adan comes alive by the touch, by the contac. The artist, turned into life creator, blows breath to the material, he makes it come alive again, transforming the clay Golen into a living being.

Not in vain, as Fcillon used to say, the hand transform the Atr, gides it from its contemplative passivity to an active feeling.