Baroja Collet

Juan Luis Baroja Collet (Le Creusot, France 1957) is a sculptor and engraver whose work features as a parallel journey to that of the new Basque sculpture, within what is called "the other Basque sculpture".

Biography

Born in 1957 in Le Creusot (France) of a French mother and Basque father, he moved with his family to Eibar in 1964.

He learned the art of damasquinado in Eibar and began to paint as a self-taught artist, holding his first exhibition in 1978 in the exhibition hall of the Caja Laboral in Eibar. He learned calcographic engraving under Mari Puri Herrero and Gabriel Ramos Uranga and in 1983 he took over the engraving class of the Deba school of art, developing his knowledge of engraving with Ignacio Chillida.

In 1987 he added sculpture to his artistic practice as a language, using iron as hiq main expressive material. The following year he was selected for the exhibition "10 Young Guipuzcoan Sculptors" at the San Telmo Museum, San Sebastián. He was awarded the Pablo Gargallo Prize for Sculpture in 1991.

In 1995 he began to make small-format sculptures in bronze.

Together with Mari Fran Agirregabiria, in 1997 he founded the "Itzal" engraving and editing workshop in Soraluce, Gipuzkoa(currently in Deba).

He exhibited the bibliophile book Mallarmeren betazalak (Mallarme's eyelids) together with the poet Michel Hubert Lépicouché.

As a tribute to the inhabitants of Eibar, he present the Eibartarrak series of engravings made up of 48 prints in 2000. A public sculpture cast in bronze is installed in Eibar.

In 2001 he was selected to participate in the Spanish pavilion at the Cairo Biennial in Egypt.

In 2006 he was invited to participate in Mérida (Mexico) in the exhibition "Sculptural Brotherhoods Mexico-Spain"

The bibliophile book "Piztiarioa" was presented at the Centro Koldo Mitxelena in San Sebastián in 2009, with engravings by Baroja Collet and text by Txiliku.

In 2010 he was a guest artist at the II International Encounters of Artists in Doñana, Almonte, Huelva.

In 2011 he began using stainless steel in his work.

In 2017, he was invited by Nautilus - Lanzarote to make a public sculpture in Puerto del Carmen. The Friends of the San Telmo Museum association acquired a sculpture to enrich the Museum's collection on the occasion of its 25th Anniversary.