RENÉ UGARTE
Born in Venezuela in 1951, René Ugarte belongs to the generation of artists who extended the legacy of Latin American geometric abstraction and kinetic art while developing a personal visual language rooted in structure, space and perception. Trained at the School of Fine Arts in Valencia, he was deeply influenced from the outset by the major currents of European abstraction, particularly the Suprematism of Kazimir Malevich and the Neo-Plasticism of Piet Mondrian and Theo van Doesburg.
His artistic development was also shaped by his close relationship with leading figures of Venezuelan Kinetic Art. He worked alongside Jesús Rafael Soto and Carlos Cruz-Diez, whose investigations into movement and perception informed his own artistic thinking. Yet Ugarte quickly forged an independent path, choosing to explore the internal tensions of geometric form rather than pursuing spectacular optical effects.
At the heart of his practice lies a constant investigation into balance and imbalance. Using squares, rectangles, lines and coloured planes, he constructs compositions of remarkable architectural precision whose apparent stability is deliberately disrupted through shifts, interruptions and overlapping forms. His works create perceptual ambiguity, with volumes oscillating between flatness and real depth.
Throughout his career, living and working between Venezuela, Paris and the United States, René Ugarte has exhibited in numerous international galleries and institutions. Represented for many years by Espace Meyer Zafra, which has devoted several solo exhibitions to his work, he continues to pursue a coherent exploration of fragmentation, convergence and formal instability.
Today, his work stands in the lineage of the great masters of Venezuelan constructive abstraction while asserting a distinctive geometric language that is immediately recognisable.
