The Qué! newspaper has selected the winner and finalists of the painting prize 'Qué! Arte', whose aim is to spread, promote or make known the work of national and international painters in their pop or street art style. Thus, the winner is Álvaro Borobio. "It is a work belonging to the Al Andalus project that I have been developing for a year and a half. A self-financed project in Granada in collaboration with the Alhambra Trust," explains the author. With Andalusian references, the author intends to integrate classical Arabic forms and landscape architecture with classical vegetal and mineral forms, used as references in Sufi structures and poems. Borobio studied Advanced Architecture at the USP Ceu Polytechnic School and obtained an Erasmus scholarship to Naples, a city that left its mark on his way of creating from urban and sociological visual references. In 2010 he was awarded a scholarship by the UCL College of London (Slade School of Fine Arts) and has developed a series of projects related to the figure and the mark of man on the environment, whether urban or rural. Since 2008 to date he has held multiple exhibitions in cultural centres, Spanish galleries and international fairs. In this sense, Borobio has studied practically all contemporary artists. His culture transcends the history of art. For Álvaro, scientific discoveries are tremendously linked to artistic ones, so much so that he considers himself a “modern humanist”, and has as a reference artists of science such as Leonardo da Vinci or Olafur Eliasson… On the other hand, one of the finalists is Francisco Mayor Maestre, with a work entitled “A new way of resisting”. Graduated in Fine Arts and with exhibitions in some of the most important collections in Spain, the award-winning work at Qué! Art! is a call to observe everyday life with a different perspective, one that transcends routine and gives a new, almost revolutionary meaning to what surrounds us.
The other finalist, meanwhile, is Albert Bonet with “La Bañera” (The Bathtub). From a very young age he showed a great passion for art, which has led him to train and participate in numerous competitions. La Bañera is an example of how Albert Bonet demonstrates a special ability to elevate social criticism to the category of art, making use of the Pop style and hyperrealism to do so.
THE OFFICIAL DELIVERY WILL BE IN OCTOBER
With these awards, the digital newspaper aims to be a patron of artists by rewarding works that reflect the author's personal language. The winning painting by Álvaro Borobio will receive a prize of 6,000 euros and a report that will promote the artist in the newspaper, where the finalists will also be covered. The official awards ceremony will be held in October 2022 and the winning works will be exhibited and will be able to travel around Spain. A Committee of Experts in this edition, together with the CEO of the Merca2 Group, Alejandro Suárez, the CEO of Arte Global, Elisa Hernando and the Director of Institutional Relations of the Merca2 Group, Ricardo Ducazcal, have chosen the winner.
After the summer, in October 2022, the official awards ceremony will take place. The works will be exhibited in Madrid between 15 and 30 September 2022, inclusive. The exhibition may also travel to other cities. With this award, Qué! continues its commitment to artistic talent in its different forms of expression among young people as a general Spanish newspaper. Founded in 2005, it stopped being free on paper to become one of the digital newspapers with the largest audience in Spain, reaching three million readers per month. Currently, the newspaper belongs to the Merca2 Group, which also publishes other online media such as Merca2.es, MONCLOA.com, Cotilleo.es, Inversion.es and Motor 16.