Guillaume Ortega

Guillaume Ortega was born in 1974 in Paris. After his studies in cultural meditation he started working in the social area. He worked for 10 years for an association that fights against aids called AIDES, and then worked as a middle school teacher in Nimes for 4 years.

This is when he realized the strength of his art: photography combined with collage and painting. This mixture of techniques instantly made sense to young school kids and permitted to stablish a communication with them. He says "they were immediately interested by the photos, it allows them to speak about themselves, and show what they can not say. This is what passionates me about pictures, their immediate, instinctive and real aspect of life, I always wanted to fight against the unsaid".

After this experience, Guillaume Ortega decided to devote himself to his art and now has his own studio in Paris.

Ortega's work is inspired by the techniques of the artist Loren and by his work on bull-fighting, as well as on the work of Pierre and Gilles, David Lachapelle and of course Andy Warhol, to whom he pays tribute with his work on Marilyn Monroe.

Guillaume Ortega began by taking pictures, which he then modifies with oil paint. The creation is then retouched with the computer and then redone with paint, pasted, varnished, retouched and repainted....He constantly reworks his canvases, in order to get rid of the photo's reality and incorporate to it his own truth, his own feelings and his messages of respect and tolerance.