Xaquin Chaves (Vilaxoán, 1959), is a Galician artist whose production has mainly been devoted to figurative and abstract expressionism. Towards the end of the seventies, he began to exhibit with vigorous paintings, applying an elaborate chromatic process with a clear intention to celebrate nature. The flora, fauna and landscape surrounding him were depicted during that stage, using an energetic language brimming with resources that was later to evolve towards a rich abstraction in registers, subtleties and subjectivity. Needless to say, the references to nature continue to be a constant in his figurative work, particularly where paper is the means used. In this manner, XCh. has avoided tying himself down to limitations imposed by imagining and abstraction, considered from the angle of a certain academicism as being self-excluding disciplines, crossing over from one to the other with enriching freedom, but at all times, in terms of their expressive requirements. In the case of this polymorphous artist, it should be noted that the spectator's approximation will be all the more valuable if his or her emotional attention is aimed at its consolidated language, the authentic means and final justification of his paintings as well as of his objectual world. It should also be said that XCh.'s voluminous work is, to some extent, indebted to his painting. This "ready-made' field generates an identity shared both in the chromatic and in the objects in which the artist involves himself. The expressive freedom with which XCh. is accustomed to introducing allusions to diverse schools and currents in his works has had momentary collaborations with other authors possible. In this regard, attention is drawn to his "action paintings" with poets and some joint examples made with creators of his own generation, both in Spain and in other European countries. XCh. belongs to that generation of Galician artists who became known in the seventies, although their artistic development has been regardless of the groups originating at that time. Such a circumstance has not prevented him from coinciding, by chance, at institutional and private meetings, with some of these authors. In editorial design, it is common to take on the art direction of ones own catalogues personally, and he has also produced illustrations and posters. 

His work is present in institutional and private collections in Galicia, Spain and other European countries as well as in America. Over the last few years, he has frequently exhibited in Spain, France, Holland and Portugal. XCh. lives in Vitagarcía de Arousa and his artist’s workshop is in Ribadumia, Pontevedra.

 

Jorge García