Joxan Iza

Bergara, Guipúzcoa, Spain, 1961

He began learning drawing at an early age in the studio of Simón Arrieta and Miguel Okina, painters from his hometown. During the 1970s, he actively participated in the vibrant activity of the Bergara painters’ collective alongside Bixen De Pedro, Otamendi, and Jesús María Lazcano, among others. In 1979, he traveled to Paris, where he regularly attended the studio of M. Geminiani. At the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, he joined the studio of M. Auguereau, where he consolidated his artistic training until 1987, when he returned to the Basque Country. He designed book covers for various publishers while continuing to develop his painting practice. In the 1990s, he was selected for the Europistas Sculpture Competition in Bilbao and for several Emerging Artists competitions in Guipúzcoa. He is a founding partner of the Bergara-based digital art company Bertz and the publishing house Millaka.

Joxan Iza’s paintings are like X-rays of our world and society, constantly being woven and unwoven at a rapid pace. His works feature loose black marks—subtle and light—entangled in networks and technological artifacts that the artist presents through a visual language influenced by expressionism, comics, and graffiti, combined in a dynamic and well-structured mixed approach. Alongside his paintings, Joxan Iza creates constructivist sculptures: constructions, puzzles, and bricolage that exist between humanity and technology. These hybrid pieces suggest unseen cities where robots and new fibers generate networks of relationships and processes in which art becomes immersed and involved.