"To redefine photography through bold color, irony, and staged imagery, creating dreamlike worlds that challenge perception and blur the line between reality and fiction."
Ciuco Gutiérrez is a renowned Spanish photographer who blends color, irony, and staged imagery to create a dreamlike universe that blurs the boundaries between reality and fiction. Since the 1980s, his bold use of aggressive color and irony has challenged photographic conventions.
A pioneer in integrating photography into contemporary art, he was among the first to exhibit at ARCO Madrid. His work transforms the ordinary into conceptual visual fictions, using color, metaphor, and paradox to invite reflection on perception and reality.
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Ciuco GutiérrezTatoo, 2012Photograph on RC paper siliconised on methacrylate with golden baroque frame100 x 80 cmView more details -
Ciuco GutiérrezClaws, 2014hotograph on baryta paper and grey frame60 x 80 cmView more details
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Ciuco GutiérrezReader, 2014Photograph on Baryta paper and gray frame106 x 76 cmView more details
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Ciuco GutiérrezRed Flowers, 2015Photograph on Baryta paper and gray frame76 x 106 cmView more details
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Ciuco GutiérrezRetrato fondo gris 2, 201576 x 106 cmView more details
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Ciuco GutiérrezBlack tears, 2015Photograph on Baryta paper and black frame76 x 106 cmView more details
Ciuco Gutiérrez (Torrelavega, Cantabria, 1956) is a pioneering Spanish photographer known for his bold use of color, irony, and staged imagery. His career began in 1983, when he produced his first series of images with a distinctly personal style. Just three years later, he held his first solo exhibition at Galería Moriarty in Madrid, marking the beginning of an extensive trajectory that has included hundreds of exhibitions in Spain and internationally. He was among the first photographers—alongside Ouka Leele, Alberto García-Alix, Javier Vallhonrat, and Joan Fontcuberta—to exhibit in contemporary art galleries and at the International Contemporary Art Fair (ARCO Madrid).
His work revolves around the staging of spaces and places, where intimacy, imagination, and narrative elements merge to create a dreamlike and conceptual universe. Paradox, metaphor, irony, and color play a fundamental role in his compositions, constructing a highly literary and evocative visual language.
His images are part of prestigious public and private collections, including the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (Madrid), IVAM (Valencia), the Telefónica Collection, the Norte Collection of Contemporary Art (Government of Cantabria), Comunidad de Madrid, Fundación La Caixa (Barcelona), Centro de Arte Niemeyer (Avilés), and the Coca-Cola Foundation, among others.
Over the years, he has received significant grants and awards, including the Marcelino Botín Foundation Scholarship (2004) and the Plastic Arts Scholarships from the Comunidad de Madrid (2007, 2008). In addition to his artistic practice, he has worked as an exhibition curator, organizing shows for institutions such as the Spanish Ministry of Culture and AECID, with many of these projects traveling across Latin America.
Ciuco Gutiérrez has also been an active lecturer, delivering conferences and seminars at institutions such as the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Universidad de Santiago de Chile, Universidad de Lyon (France), Universidad de San José de Costa Rica, Universidad de Cádiz, Universidad de Cantabria, Centro Cultural de España in Montevideo (Uruguay), and the American University in Cairo (Egypt).
Through his distinctive photographic language, Ciuco Gutiérrez continues to challenge visual conventions, blending fiction and reality to construct immersive and thought-provoking narratives.
