Juan Escudero

Juan Escudero is a Spanish artist and printmaker based in Barcelona whose mastery of etching has earned him international recognition across art fairs, biennials, and galleries. A graduate in Fine Arts from the University of the Basque Country with a specialization in painting, Escudero's path to printmaking was neither immediate nor conventional. After completing his degree, he left painting in 1993 to establish a 3D animation company, returning to art through drawing around 2007. In 2011, he produced his first engraving, and by 2017 had devoted himself entirely to the medium.

His etching practice begins with the engraving of a copper plate and culminates in a meticulous printing process on carefully sourced papers, typically Hahnemühle 350 gram or Somerset soft white. Escudero works under a rigorous self-imposed constraint: all marks made must remain visible, and no corrections are permitted. This discipline produces a raw, immediate quality in which a first line prefigures every subsequent mark, creating compositions that feel simultaneously controlled and spontaneous.

Escudero's subject matter draws from the natural world — seascapes, waterfalls, and coastal landscapes rendered through dense networks of etched lines that capture the movement and luminosity of water and light. Series such as Water Customs, Torimbia, and Llucalcari reference specific Mediterranean and Atlantic locations, transforming observed landscapes into deeply personal meditations on place and perception. His color palette tends toward deep blues, turquoises, and greens, evoking the elemental forces of sea and sky.

His work has been presented at more than twenty international art fairs and has received numerous awards, including First Prize at the VI 'On Paper' International Printmaking Award in Barcelona in 2020, the Excellence Prize at the 2021 Awagami International Miniature Print Exhibition in Japan, and First Prize at the XIX Deutsche Internationale Grafik-Triennale in Frechen, Germany; his prints have also been recognized at an international print biennial in Taiwan. He is represented by Pigment Gallery in Barcelona, with his work also available through K+Y Contemporary Art and Pareit Gallery, and held in private and institutional collections across Europe, Asia, and the Americas.