Oscar Santillán

Born in 1980 in Ecuador
Lives and works between Netherlands and Ecuador

Santillan’s work insinuates the existence of a territory where the limits of what is possible can be trespassed: what happened, what may have happened, and what is presented are equivalent terms. Unexpected events occur there, the beat of drums get synchronized to the abundant sweat of a person, the unrealized desire of a dead person is fulfilled, a phantom island is reconstituted, or the weight of all the sunlight over planet Earth is perfectly embodied by a stone.

Santillan received a Sculpture MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University – VCU (US), and attended residencies at Davidoff International AIR (DO), Delfina Foundation (UK), Jan van Eyck (NL), Fondazione Ratti (IT), Skowhegan (US), and Seven Below (US).

His work has been displayed at Witte de With (NL), Irish Museum of Modern Art (IE), IV Poli/graphic Triennial (PR), Centraal Museum (NL), ‘Carrillo Gil’ Museum of Art (MX), STUK (BE), FLORA ars+natura (CO), The Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art – SECCA (US), Nest (NL), Sala Miró Quesada (PE), Galleria Mazzoli (IT), Copperfield (UK), Bonnefanten Museum (NL), NoMINIMO (EC), Marilia Razuk Gallery (BR), XIII Bienal de Cuenca (EC), Kröller-Müller Museum (NL), Fundación ODEON (CO), Bienal de Arte Paiz (GT), among other venues.

Santillan’s work has been the subject of articles, reviews, and interviews published on Frieze magazine, Art Pulse, Art Forum, Art Nexus, Art Monthly, Exibart, Metropolis M, The Blank, Art News, among others.