MONDO GALERIA presents "Latente" (Latent) latest exhibit by Martín Sampedro (Santander, 1966) in which the artist investigates, through new technologies, the future of photography.

A conscious tribute to early photography and its Masters. Sampedro elaborates a singular cosmogony looking to reveal (to us) a new world hidden in new methods of creation which is apparently artificial but in reality it is so intrinsic to the way our minds build up images.

Thirty photographs present Martin Sampedro´s own iconography departing from ideas and deja-vus well used to invite us discover a mesmerizing unfolded world where he masters light, form and photography language. If recently was oin vogue to talk about "Expanded painting" or about concepts as "Post Photography", in "Latente" we are in front of a re-definition of photography medium. It is a game, where the artist creates images without a camera (as Man Ray has done at his time with his Rayograms) to create Alter Portraits where the faces of the protagonists merge(as Robert Mapplethorpe has tried to accomplish by superposing negatives) or well merged body volumes (as one can remember on Hans Bellmer´s poupette).

In this exhibit the visitor encounters an aesthetically surprising universe where the artist revises all his previous work to create for us with poetry a Genesis which has never existed.

With his Alter-Retratos, Sampedro, tributes photography as a media and by means of using mythological greek names, apart from relating past and present, he is commenting directly on the actual situation between of closeness and distancing of Greece and Europe.

"LATEИTE" 31x31 cm / Hard Cover / 220 páginas / Limited Edition

About the artist

Martin Sampedro was born on October 12, 1966, in Santander. His passion for photography began at the early age of eight years when he started collecting analogue photographs with which he won  his first prizes and exhibitions. After moving to Madrid, he became  director of the School of Photography Workshop “The Slaughterhouse” for King’s College Foundation. In 1992 he was selected for the Youth Art Show before starting photographic activities for various advertising agencies. His most prominent commercial advertising campaigns received several international awards while he has become a widely known car photographers, creating campaigns for Ford, Toyota, Hyundai, Kia, Mercedes or Jaguar. His artistic practice is based on experimentation and intensive critical research, largely based on the relation between the human figure and the virtual creations of digital techniques, inaugurating the so-called “New Photography.” His latest body of works, including Interior Ulterior, The Strangeness of Existence or Blue Bloods, represents a continuous effort to connect the different dimensions of existence and reaffirm intuition as raw material for its imagery.

Martin Sampedro’s group exhibitions include, among others, “Futurgrafías,” Sala de Exposiciones de la Caja Postal, Santander, Cantabria (1987) “60 Fotografías,” Casa de Vacas del Retiro, Madrid (1987); “Instante y Magia,” MEAC, Madrid (1991); “El cuarto oscuro,”Javier Montero, Blue Velvet, Madrid (1991); “Muestra de Arte Joven 1992,” (with Miren Arenzana, Bene Bergado, Nuria Canal, Marcel Ges, Toni Giro, Carles Guerra, Daniel Gutiérrez, Pilar Laperal, Gabriel Perezzan, Susana Rabanal, Dick Rekalde, Manuela Saez, Juan Urrios, Eulalia Valldosera), Ministry of Culture, Youth Institute, Museo Español de Arte Contemporáneo, MEAC, Madrid (1992); “Polaroid Made,” itinerary, Santander (1993); “Foto España,” Galería Talismaán (1998); “Foto España ’99,” Galería Virtual Digitalfoto (1999); “ArteFoto Santander,” Fundación Comillas, Santander, Cantabria (1999); “El Refractor,” Galería Buades (1999); “Ninfografías-Infomanías: Poéticas fotográficas en la era digital,” curated by José Gómez Isla (with Mario de Ayguavives, Javier Euba, Isabel Flores, Fran Herbello, Isaac Montoya, Sandra Sue y Daniel Vega Borrego, Juan Luis Moreno-Baquerizo, Pedro Mora o Paloma Navares, José Manuel Ballester, Aitor Ortiz o Montserrat Soto, Perejaume, Daniel Canogar, Marina Núñez, María José Goómez Redondo, Juan Urrios, Joan Fontcuberta, Jorge Rueda), Museo Municipal de Arte Contemporáneo de Madrid / Centro Conde Duque, Madrid (2001); “El real viaje Real / The Real Royal Trip,” Situación Crítica (El Perro, Aitor Méndez, PSJM, Martín Sampedro) (with Antoni Abad, Ana Laura Aláez, Pilar Albarracín, Tania Bruguera, Carles Congost, Justo Gallego, Carmela García, Cristina García Rodero, Cristina Lucas, Alicia Martín, Enrique Marty, Mateo Maté, Priscilla Monge, Ernesto Neto, Sergio Prego, Fernando Sánchez Castillo, Ixone Sádaba, Santiago Sierra, Néstor Torrens, Eulàlia Valldosera, Javier Velasco, El Perro), curated by Harald Szeemann, MoMA PS1, New York (2003); “Espacio Privado Espacio Imaginado” (with Monique Bastians, Karina Beltrán, Darya von Berner, Teresa Correa, Miriam Durango, Ouka Leele, Gabriel Ortuño, Montserrat Soto, Miwa Yanagi), commissioned by Ángeles Alemán, Centro de Arte La Regenta, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (2010); “SAN SEBASTIAN: De lo sagrado y lo profano,” (with Derek Jarman, Bill Viola, Erwin Olaf, Joel-Peter Witkin, Pierre et Gilles, Bavo Defurne, Patti Smith, Carl Fischer, Guillermo Pérez Villalta, Pablo Pérez-Miínguez, Francisco Leiro, Manel Boix, Roberto González Fernández, David Trullo, Jorge Galindo, Nazario, Jorge Oteiza, Marcos López, Darío Villalba, Marina Núñez, and others), commissioned by Javier Balda and Fernando Golvano, Sala Kubo, Kutxa, San Sebastian (2011); “DESNUDOS” (with Bárbara Almart, Dafne Artigot, Diego Alonso, Ángel Agrela, Antonio Alvarado, Pura Arenal, Flavia Bernar, Cecilia Bergamín, César Calafate, Lucía Calafate, Mapy DH, Pepe Domínguez, Gudrun Ewert, Óscar Fuster, Rosa Guerrero, Juan Gómez, Roberto González Fernández, Víctor García Rivero, Bettina Geisselmann, Eva Hiernaux, Antonio Herrera de la Muela, Alberto Herrero, Miguel Jiménez San Juan, Patricia López Landabaso, Mariana Laín, Paz Muro, Mario Monforte, Luis de la Mata, Almudena Mora, Susan Nash, David Ortega, David Paquet, Pablo Pérez-Mínguez P.P.M., Loreto Pozuelo, Mila Rodero, Matilde Roca de Togores, Alicia Rey Gatoó, Félix Rego, Krum Stanoev, Isa Soler, Martín Sampedro, Milena Stefanova, Paco Tierraseca, David Trullo, Alberto Vidarte, Antonia Valero, Juan Yagüe), VISIBLE / El Foro de Pozuelo. Madrid (2012); “DESNUDOS 2 Homenaje a P.P.M.” (with Bárbara Almart, Dafne Artigot, Diego Alonso, Ángel Agrela, Antonio Alvarado, Pura Arenal, Flavia Bernar, Cecilia Bergamín, César Calafate, Lucía Calafate, Mapy DH, Pepe Domínguez, Gudrun Ewert, Óscar Fuster, Rosa Guerrero, Juan Gómez, Roberto González Fernández, Víctor García Rivero, Bettina Geisselmann, Eva Hiernaux, Antonio Herrera de la Muela, Alberto Herrero, Miguel Jiménez San Juan, Patricia López Landabaso, Mariana Laín, Paz Muro, Mario Monforte, Luis de la Mata, Almudena Mora, Susan Nash, David Ortega, David Paquet, Pablo Pérez-Mínguez P.P.M., Loreto Pozuelo, Mila Rodero, Matilde Roca de Togores, Alicia Rey Gatoó, Félix Rego, Krum Stanoev, Isa Soler, Martín Sampedro, Milena Stefanova, Paco Tierraseca, David Trullo, Alberto Vidarte, Antonia Valero, Juan Yagüe), VISIBLE / El Foro de Pozuelo, Madrid (2013); “Miradas de Picasso,” (with Ángel Agrela, Raquel García Fernández, Conchita Gómez Miguel, Fany Kano, Pablo Báez, Raquel García Fernández, Hanoos, Loreto Pozuelo, Bettina geisselmann, Conchita Gómez Miguel, Fany Kano, Loreto Pozuelo, Mirai Kobayashi, Sampedro, Luz Villamayor, Elisa Miravalles, Pablo Sobisch Migliavacca, Claudia Stilianopoulos, Jose Luis Sánchez Molina, Nuria Ruiz Vernacci, Verónica Bustamante Loring, Diego Canogar, Jose Luis Sánchez Molina, Jaime Aumente, Pablo Colomo, Brenda Moreno Gómez, Matías Montarcé, Cristina Rodriguez Requejo, Chema Madoz, Rosa Moreno de Castro, Jesús Jiménez, Fernando Colomo Gonzalez, José Villanueva, Jorge Pedraza, Manuel Oyonarte), curated by Ángel Agrela, Centro Cultural Sanchinarro, Madrid (2013). His solo exhibitions include “Martín Sampedro,” Ayuntamiento de Santoña, Cantabria (1983); “INTERIOR ULTERIOR,” Sala de Exposiciones CICCA, La Caja de Canarias, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (2009); “La extrañeza de Existir,” Espacio Imagen, Mercado de Miranda Santander, Cantabria (2011); and “Latente,” Mondo Galería, Madrid (October 2015).