About the Artist
Emilio Fornieles (1975) is a Spanish plastic artist, Andalusian (Lepe, Huelva) although born in Terrassa (Barcelona), member of the Spanish Association of Painters and Sculptors and resident in Germany since 2013, when it arrived in Berlin brought by curators and promoters German artists to carry out exhibition projects. Sponsored by the Spanish Embassy in Berlin and the Provincial Council of Huelva, would be received by the Hon. Mr. Ambassador Mr. Pablo García-Berdoy and presented at the reception before a select group of cultural and international personalities residents in Berlin. In November 2013 he would also be selected to create a plastic work in direct from the mayor and governor of the city, at that time, Mr. Klaus Wowereit, sharing the stage with the dancer Mercedes Ruiz in the celebrations of the 25th Anniversary of the Twinning of Madrid and Berlin. Work that the mayor himself would later show to Their Majesties the Kings of Spain on their visit to Berlin in 2014, explaining the details of how the 189 × 96 cm work was conceived in one hour and awakening the interest of Their Majesties.
International Artist, with a multitude of creative manifestations as well as a multitude of individual and group exhibitions behind him, painting awards national and international, with work in different Museums, Foundations, Institutions Public and private collections in both Spain and Italy, Portugal, Republic Czech, Denmark and USA among other countries.
Since October 2018 in the Collection of Their Majesties the Kings of Spain (in personal donation at the Palacio de La Zarzuela). Initially sponsored by the 1998 Nobel Prize in Literature and Favorite Son of Andalusia 2007, the Portuguese José Saramago, Emilio Fornieles is a representative of the new Spanish figuration at an international level, an ambassador of Spanish art, with artistic interventions and projects not only in Europe, but also in other countries continents like Asia, with its altruistic project for the School of Life in Chiang Mai. A didactic project specially developed for 130 schoolchildren, children picked up from the street with social difficulties, which in its first performance featured the institutional support from the Spanish Embassy in Bangkok. The first result of project was praised by the Founder of the project, Prof. Em. Dr. Jürgen Zimmer († 2019), (awarded the highest distinction granted by Germany: the Federal Cross of the Merit), who assured in relation to the teaching results that it was the best project teacher that the school had received since its creation. In January 2024, Fornieles has repeated School for Life, this time to teach its second Workshop among 142 boys and girls from the school with such success in the result.
In his first 10 years in Germany, Fornieles has also had experiences teachers at Lette-Verein Akademie and S.O.S. Kinderdorf, among others. His international teaching work ranges from workshops and masterclasses to conferences and presentations (both in English and German), such as the one given at the ICD Academy for Cultural Diplomacy in Berlin, where the artist gave a presentation at the International Symposium on Creative Industries, Culinary Innovation and Performing Arts with its intervention "Action Paintings Live Performance“ -How the fine Arts and Performing arts “can come together.” In 2015 it would be presented in Prague through the Spanish Embassy and the Institute Cervantes.
That same year he would again participate altruistically in a project of helps autism, in a unique event organized by a renowned Czech Foundation and sharing an artistic project with the famous singer Karel Gott († 2019), who sponsored his appearance on the Czech stage. Fornieles would make an Action Painting with the presence of Karel Gott himself before the press and national television. The work would be acquired by Karel and its value destined to the Autism Help Foundation in a Gala that would be broadcast on all Czech television channels.
In December 2018 he would be invited by the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Berlin to adorn with his work a special event on the Centenary of the creation of the former Czechoslovakia, "Masaryk and Jerusalem: A night of celebration of Czech-Israeli friendship", with the portrait of T.G. Masaryk presiding over the event in the main auditorium of the Czech Embassy.
Among his recent exhibitions in Spain, the exhibition “Diez” at the Gallery stands out. David Bardía (Madrid, 2018) or his presentation in the wine-artistic programming of Bodegas Campillo in La Rioja Alavesa, a project supported by the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao (2019) in which he presented his first 10-year retrospective. In recent years he has been invited to take part in the 56th REINA SOFIA AWARD where was a finalist. It was his last artistic intervention in Spain. Committed artist, and especially dedicated to the dissemination of Spanish products, as is the case of the project on esparto grass shoes, typical of the national culture: “Riesen auf Espadrillen” (2018), portraits of personalities from painting and literature of the Cervantes language on canvases of small surfaces. shoes, portraits in miniature, sponsored by a company from that almost extinct artisanal sector, the brand Rioja and family Aedo.
Last year's Picasso celebration, the Andalusian artist paid tribute to him 3 times tribute to Pablo Picasso. First with a workshop with the children and adolescents of the city of Meissen, primary schools and institutes, decorating with doves of peace the oldest street in the city: Görnische Gasse. More than 300 pigeons both in 2D as in 3D and with cardboard made by the boys and girls of the city. A second tribute was the tribute to Picasso with the project “The Painter and the Dove”, during Museum Night. An action painting with Rebeca Ortega Flamenco Show in the Historical Museum of the city, the former Franciscan church of the town today converted into a museum. The project was sponsored by the AECID, the Spanish Embassy in Berlin, Sparkasse and the City of Meissen.
As a third and final tribute, the series „Les quatre Saisons“, four oil portraits of different periods of the Malaga painter done in an unusual way on the backs of authentic dishes from the Meissen State Porcelain Factory. In the last quarter of 2023 the artist was invited to take part in an exhibition of the artists of the Görnische Gasse in the Meissen Historical Museum. In it, during the exhibition period, the artist was invited to give a conference about his work exhibited there. On November 17, 2023, Mayor Olaf Raschke as well as the Mayor of the City of Meissen Mr. Markus Renner would inaugurate his exhibition retrospective „Made in Deutschland“ in its own artistic and cultural space. About this event there is an online Podcast from Onda Madrid in which Fornieles would be interviewed by Nieves Herrero: https://fornielesgalerieatelier.com/news/
Currently, Fornieles is fluent (in addition to his native language) in English, German and French (written and spoken) as well as basic knowledge of Czech. It has always been the wish of our represented artist to be able to return some return to his homeland and to present his talent again also in Spain just as it does in other countries. That wish will finally be realized thanks to a new international gallery in Marbella: SIN Studio Gallery, whose responsibles will be in charge of presenting their work most recently with a solo exhibition under the title „Back to the roots“ (return to the roots) and with a special Premiere, his new series: „Verde que “I love you green” an apology at the same time an exaltation of Andalusian values in the return of the Huelva artist to his land with a common denominator: Andalusia.