Ignacio Uriarte (1972) was born and grew up in Krefeld in Germany. He studied business administration in Madrid and Mannheim, then worked for various corporations in Germany, Spain and Mexico. There, he graduated in audio-visual arts from the Centro de Artes Audiovisuales in Guadalajara, Mexico. He left the corporate world ten years ago and dedicated himself fully to art, calling his work “office art”, and moved to somewhat more artist-friendly Berlin in 2007. Uriarte draws inspiration from ‘the little creative moments’ within office routines. The two-channel video Blue Ribbon takes as its starting point the simplest of all office doodles: filling out squares on graph paper. Whether monumentalising the ‘cascade’ function in Windows by spacing sheets of paper over a wall, or drawing shapes with two different shades of black marker pen, Uriarte uses administrative tools to restore creative agency to the office worker.

Ignacion Uriarte exhibitions include: Apropos Papier: Ignacio Uriarte, Bürokünstler, Museo Leopold Hoesch, Düren (2018); Bürozeit, Kunstmuseum Villa Zanders, Bergisch Gladbach (2015); Unos y Ceros, MARCO, Vigo (2014); Acht Studenten zählen, Berlinische Galerie, Berlín (2014); Binarios, UMOCA (Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Utah), Salt Lake City; Línea de trabajo, The Drawing Center, Nueva York; Ineficiencia productiva, galería Skuc, Ljubljana (todos 2013); Espacio de trabajo, DAZ (Deutches Architektur Zentrum), Berlín (2012); Obras, Sala Rekalde, Bilbao (2011); La invención de las letras, PICA Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, Perth (2010) y Tan sencillo como una línea ó un círculo, Laboratorio 987, MUSAC, Leon (2008).