Ernesto Zapata's work has the quality of verticality. In appearance his work is flat, but if one knows how to wait and sensitivity quickly emerges, we realize that there is something beyond the apparent strength of his work. Because its strength refers us to those qualities that only and solely arise from a way of understanding that is scarce in our days, the waiting, that which tells us that time is not a physical and tangible dimension, that time is necessarily full of meaning and sensitivity, endowed with effort for the sensitive understanding of what is seen, looked at and felt. Hence its verticality, profound, with strong and at the same time almost volatile features, with apparently superb materials until one approaches and allows oneself to be found and dialogues with his work, where the material becomes butter and one feels its fragility. In the same way that its strength does not reside in the visual impact but in the resonance of the message. Which like a scalpel operates with all current issues.
Emptiness in terms of the void it proposes, because there is no transformation without first emptying the content to be filled again, with new transformative energies. His sculpture has three brains, the rational, the sensitive and the spiritual, although at first glance one cannot discern which of them marks the form, texture and meaning. Hence its verticality and depth. Born in Bilbao, he possesses the tradition of Basque sculptors from the second half of the 20th century, emptiness and fullness, strength and transformation of form. And it evidences his hybrid training, space engineering and the cultivation of material as a dimension of innovation. A gift from someone who without seeking finds. A work and an artist that reflects the sensitive reality of the 21st century like few in the Spanish art scene.
JOSE JAVIER SALUTREGUI PACIOS
PROFESSOR OF FINE ARTS/COMMUNICATION
ANTONIO DE NEBRIJA UNIVERSITY-ART CRITIC
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