MAESTROS Ilustración Española!

Ten Masters of Contemporary Spanish Illustration

24. 4. – 31. 10. 2026

Ten artists.
Ten distinctive voices.
Spain in the full breadth of its contemporary book imagery.

This exhibition presents artists who belong among the leading figures of illustration in Spain. Some of them have been shaping the field for more than four decades and have significantly influenced the development of Spanish illustration. Others represent its current generation. Together they reveal both continuity and transformation.

Spain has a strong tradition of visual culture — from classical painting to contemporary design and book art. Illustration is a natural part of this tradition. Not as a supplement to literature, but as an independent language.

Minimalist drawing alongside expressive painting.
Collage, printmaking and graphic novels.
Quiet images as well as powerful visual gestures.

Here you will find National Illustration Award winners as well as artists recognised at the Bratislava Biennial of Illustration and the Bologna Children’s Book Fair. Their books have been translated into dozens of languages and their works are represented in important international collections.

Spanish illustration of the last decades is not defined by a single style. It is a space of contrasts and strong personalities. Respect for craft. A deep relationship with literature. A clear authorial voice.

This time, there is no need to travel to Madrid or Barcelona.
Spain is here.

Illustrators:

JAVIER ZABALA

Javier Zabala (*1962, León) is an internationally recognised illustrator and recipient of the National Illustration Award (2005). His books have been translated into many languages and have received numerous prestigious international awards.

He has illustrated classic works of world literature — from Don Quixote to Shakespeare’s Hamlet, as well as texts by García Lorca, Melville and Rodari. A significant part of his work has been created in collaboration with the publishing house Bohem Press, which helped introduce his books to an international audience.

His visual language is expressive, layered and open to experimentation. Each book takes on a different form, yet always retains a clear and recognisable authorial identity.

He has received awards at the Bratislava Biennial of Illustration and the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, and his books have repeatedly been selected for the White Ravens catalogue. He is also active as a teacher at universities and art schools around the world.

Zabala shows that illustration can be bold and contemporary while remaining deeply connected to literature.

EMILIO URBERUAGA

Emilio Urberuaga (*1954, Madrid) is one of the most important figures of Spanish illustration of the past decades and one of the key artists represented in this exhibition. Since the early 1980s he has played a major role in shaping the visual identity of children’s books in Spain, influencing several generations of readers.

He has illustrated more than one hundred titles and his visual style is immediately recognisable: characters with expressive faces, distinctive proportions and a subtle sense of humour. A line that appears effortless yet remains precise. Images that carry a strong sense of personality.

For many years he collaborated with the writer Elvira Lindo, and his visual interpretation of the character Manolito Gafotas has become an iconic part of contemporary Spanish children’s literature. In these books the illustrations are not merely accompanying the text — they stand as its equal partner.

His books have been published in Spain and internationally, including by the publishing house Bohem Press, which introduced his work to a wide international audience. In 2011 he received the National Illustration Award for his lifetime contribution to the field.

His works are represented in important international collections, including the Chihiro Art Museum in Tokyo, where he is the only Spanish illustrator represented.

Urberuaga shows that strong illustration is built on character —
and that a figure can be as powerful as the story it tells.

CARME SOLÉ VENDRELL

Carme Solé Vendrell (*1944, Barcelona) is one of the most important European illustrators of the past decades. She studied painting at the Massana School in Barcelona and has been steadily building an extensive body of work since the late 1960s.

She is the author of more than eight hundred books, many of which have been translated into numerous languages and published worldwide. International recognition came particularly with the book Jon’s Moon, which she both illustrated and wrote.

She has illustrated works by Gabriel García Márquez, Mercè Rodoreda and Bertolt Brecht, among others. Her work is visually distinctive, emotionally powerful and always deeply human.

Since the 1990s she has devoted a significant part of her work to the theme of children’s rights. After illustrating Brecht’s poem Kinderkreuzzug, she began creating series of children’s faces marked by war and launched the campaign WHY?, which calls for greater respect for the rights of children.

Her work has been exhibited at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the National Museum in Taipei and the National Library of Spain in Madrid.

Carme Solé Vendrell demonstrates that illustration can be not only beautiful, but also socially powerful.

JAVIER SÁEZ CASTÁN

Javier Sáez Castán (*1964, Huesca) is an illustrator and author of picture books and comics who is widely regarded as one of the most respected figures in contemporary Spanish illustration. In 2016 he received the National Illustration Award for his lifetime contribution to the field.

International recognition came with the book Animalario Universal del Profesor Revillod, which was awarded Best Illustrated Book at the International Children’s Book Fair in Mexico and was also honoured as the best book published in the Dutch language.

Castán’s work combines imagination, structure and visual playfulness. His images bring together imaginary worlds with carefully constructed visual systems. Other acclaimed titles include La Venganza de Edison, Dorothy and El Chilangoscopio. The project Mvsevm, created in collaboration with other authors, received the BolognaRagazzi Award at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair.

Several of his books have been selected for the White Ravens catalogue of the International Youth Library in Munich, confirming the strong international reach of his work.

ANTONIO SANTOS

Antonio Santos (*1955, Huesca) is one of the distinctive figures of contemporary Spanish illustration. An illustrator, painter, sculptor and writer, he is an artist who works across media while consistently maintaining a strong personal visual language.

He studied Fine Arts at the University of Barcelona. Over the course of his career he has held more than one hundred exhibitions and published around fifty books. His work has received numerous recognitions, including the second prize of the National Illustration Award and the Daniel Gil Award for the Best Children’s Book.

Santos’s visual style is immediately recognisable. Schematic, highly stylised figures, clear colour planes and compositions that appear simple at first glance — yet are precise and carefully constructed.

He often works with collage made from cut coloured cardboard. At the same time he employs traditional printmaking techniques such as linocut, woodcut and lithography. Craft is fundamental to his work. Illustration, for him, is not an effect but the result of careful work by hand.

Alongside illustration he continues to work in sculpture — the discipline in which he originally trained — as well as in his own literary writing. Among others, he has illustrated works by Virginia Woolf and Jorge Manrique.

Santos demonstrates that contemporary illustration can be visually restrained and yet powerful. That simplicity is not simplification, but a deliberate choice.

JAVIER OLIVARES

Javier Olivares (*1964, Madrid) is one of the most distinctive contemporary Spanish authors working in comics and illustration. He began his career in the 1980s in the influential magazine Madriz and gradually established a strong position at the intersection of authorial comics and literary adaptation.

He has illustrated classic works of literature — from Arthur Conan Doyle and Jane Austen to Jack London, Charles Dickens and the dystopian novel 1984. His work is highly stylised, with clear composition and a strong narrative structure.

The graphic novel Las Meninas (written by Santiago García) received the National Comic Award (2015). His book La Cólera was honoured with several national awards for the best comic of 2020.

Olivares demonstrates that comics and illustration can stand as equal forms within contemporary visual culture.

ARCADIO LOBATO

Arcadio Lobato (*1955, Madrid) is an illustrator, teacher, writer and art director whose work has had a significant influence on contemporary European illustration.

His books, published among others in collaboration with the publishing house Bohem Press, have been translated into many languages and distributed across five continents. His title The Valley in the Mist was included among the thirty most important illustrated books of the twentieth century. For his book Der grösste Schatz (Bohem Press, Zurich) he received the award for the European Best Book Award.

Lobato is not only an author, but also a formative figure. At the invitation of Štěpán Zavřel he worked in Sàrmede, Italy, where he helped develop an educational programme that later shaped an entire generation of illustrators. In his teaching he places strong emphasis on materials, technique and the direct demonstration of artistic practice. Seeing means understanding.

His own work remains deeply rooted in literature and visual storytelling. He treats the image as a narrative space — respecting the text while maintaining a clear authorial presence.

Lobato presents illustration as a discipline that combines craft, imagination and the ability to pass knowledge on to others.

ISIDRO FERRER

Isidro Ferrer (*1963, Madrid) is one of the most distinctive figures of contemporary European graphic design and illustration. He studied drama and stage design, an experience that profoundly shaped the way he approaches images as space, situation and narrative.

His work moves between illustration, poster design, book design and art direction. It is characterised by the use of objects, visual metaphor and the ability to transform ordinary things into powerful visual symbols.

Throughout his career he has received numerous major awards, including the National Illustration Award (2006). His projects have been presented at international exhibitions across Europe, the Americas and Asia.

Ferrer shows that illustration can be both playful and intellectually precise — and that an image can communicate its meaning without the need for long explanations.

JESÚS CISNEROS

Jesús Cisneros (*1969, Zaragoza) is a prominent figure in contemporary European illustration. He studied Art History and illustration, and his books have been published in Spain, Mexico, France, Italy and the United Kingdom.

His style is based on a combination of minimalism and expressive intensity. He works with simple lines, strong atmosphere and a colour palette that enhances the emotional impact of the image.

He received the Lazarillo Illustration Award, a special mention at the Ilustrarte Biennial in Lisbon, and has been repeatedly selected for the prestigious illustrators’ exhibition at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair.

Alongside his own artistic work, he is actively involved in teaching, leading workshops and courses across Europe, Latin America and Asia.

Cisneros shows that even a restrained image can carry a powerful story.

PABLO AULADELL

Pablo Auladell (*1972, Alicante) is an illustrator and graphic novel author whose work is closely connected to literature. Since 2000 he has been steadily developing both authorial projects and commissioned illustration.

He received the Revelation Author Award at the Barcelona Comic Fair (2006), and in 2016 he was awarded the National Comic Award, one of the highest distinctions in the field of graphic novels in Spain.

Works such as La Torre Blanca, El Paraíso perdido, El sueño de Malinche and Lubianka demonstrate his ability to create complex visual worlds with a strong emphasis on atmosphere and the interpretation of literary texts.

Alongside his artistic practice he has long been engaged in teaching and also served as president of the Association of Professional Illustrators of Valencia.

Auladell confirms that illustration and comics today form an integral part of contemporary visual art.

Curator

Ivo Janoušek,
Curator and director of the Palace of illustrations