Fernando Martínez Águila

Fernando Martínez Águila (Guadalajara, 1977) is a Mexican visual artist whose work revolves around the human figure understood as political ground. Trained at the Centro Universitario de Arte, Arquitectura y Diseño (CUAAD) of the University of Guadalajara, he has spent nearly two decades developing a language that combines rigorous academic drawing, saturated color and an atmosphere close to critical surrealism.

His best-known series, Obra Negra, gathers the most uncomfortable pieces of his production: militarized childhood, faith turned into merchandise, the body as contested territory. The title is a double play — the Mexican construction term for an unfinished structure, and the film-noir tradition — and it describes his method well: leaving the structure of conflict in plain sight.

He has taken part in more than fifty group exhibitions and four solo shows, mainly in Jalisco. He received two honorable mentions at the Jorge Martínez Painting Award of the Museo de la Ciudad de Guadalajara, third place at the Galería Vértice award, and recognition as an established artist at Salón de Octubre. His work is held in private collections in Mexico and the United States.

He works from his studio in Guadalajara, where he receives collectors, gallerists and interior designers by appointment, and produces commissioned work for residential and corporate spaces.