Born in 1972 in Constitución, Chile.
With innate abilities, Carlos Vega Faúndez started drawing at a very early age and actively participated in drawing and painting contests, displaying a talent that quickly made him stand out in his school and his city.
His first exposure to oil painting was thanks to a teacher from his school who gave him a paint set as a gift.
This material, plus some Chilean painting books, engendered in him an inclination for painting, in particular, for realism.
At 15 years old, he met the painter Oscar Hernández Romero, who at that time was spending his summers in Constitución. Hernández Romero instilled in him the value of the craft, academic learning, replacing the printed image with observation of nature and, most importantly: being able to come up with his own themes.He discovered the pastel, a technique that he was passionate about and that he mastered perfectly, producing high-quality works. Rural landscapes, still lives and his familiar surroundings would be his sources of inspiration in his early period in Chile. He immediately started to stand out among the painters in his milieu, winning recognition and prizes. He started giving classes, which would help him acquire painting material and achieve financial independence.
Wishing to complete his education, he planned to go to college and at age 24 he enrolled in the School of Fine Arts of the University of Chile in Santiago.
He combined workshops and college classes (which were not entirely to his liking) with pictorial works. He exhibited in galleries and cultural centers and won first prize at the 12th Autumn Show of the National Fine Arts Society in Santiago (1998). This prize had consequences for him: his painting professor at the university advised him to abandon his pictorial line (realism) since it was not compatible with the university's curricula. In the middle of his second year of school, he left his studies and returned to Constitución.
After a few months, he got a call from Pedro Emilio Zamorano, an Art History Professor, encouraging him to participate in the scholarship contest held by the Contemporary Art and Authors Foundation (Arauco) of Madrid, headed by the painter Guillermo Muñoz Vera and the University of Talca.
The scholarship was awarded by unanimous vote, and in March of 1999 he arrived in Madrid and was transferred to the Foundation's workshops in Chinchón.In Chinchón, the Foundation directed by Muñoz Vera, which would later be known in artistic circles as the School of Chinchón, comprised of young painters of different nationalities, provided the environment and tools necessary for him to continue his education.
At the School, his learning accelerated, acquiring a great command of the oil painting technique. He continued to paint still lives, landscapes, as well as his surroundings, and he discovered a new theme: courtyards and gardens. For a time, he worked as Muñoz Vera's adjunct professor and later as a painting professor at the Academy.
In Spain he won a prize at the 66th Autumn Show of Madrid and was selected as the winner in several painting contests and participated with the School of Chinchón in expositions in Spain, Italy and the United Kingdom. As Muñoz Vera would say in a written text on the occasion of Carlos Vega's first individual exposition at Madrid’s Ansorena Gallery (2003): “It's praiseworthy that this artist, born in the city of Constitución, with barely 50,000 inhabitants, far from the great cultural centers and isolated from Museums and Galleries, was educated as a painter by pure intuition and as a result of determination and hard work.”
In the search for something that would identify and define his work, at his second individual show at the Ansorena Gallery (2007) he displayed the works from the Museums Series.
The Museums are sources in which many painters have found, aside from knowledge, inspiration, either by studying the great masters, copying their works or making new versions of them. Carlos Vega is not oblivious to this influence and this series also incorporates information from the museums, perhaps in a more modest and straightforward manner but, at the same time, more contemporary.
He currently resides in Chinchón, a town of 5,000 inhabitants 45 kilometers [28 miles] from Madrid.
Art of the World Gallery, Houston, TX. United States
Timeless Encounters with Contemporary Realism Collective Exhibition
Marchm 1st - June 5th
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