ARYZ was Born in 1988 in Palo Alto (California).
Like many artists of his generation, Arrizabalaga began painting graffiti in the early 2000s. During the first years, his pictorial practice focused on abandoned spaces around Barcelona, where he signed with the nickname ARYZ. The cold, uninhabited industrial surroundings provided a contrast that made his characters and still lifes stand out and gain popularity worldwide. Despite not having finished his studies of Fine Arts at the University of Barcelona, from which he graduated in 2011, the offers to paint murals began to arrive from many places around the world. Morocco, Japan, France, the United Kingdom, Finland, Denmark, Poland, China, Madagascar, Venezuela, Ukraine or the United States are some of the countries where he left his mark over the years. The book Outdoors (2018) brings together a large part of his production in public space made between 2008 and 2018.
Working in his atelier allows him to experiment with the possibilities of painting and to develop concepts and ideas that the immediacy of creating a mural does not. In 2019, after he decided to reduce the number of mural interventions per year and to focus on his studio work, he presented Pugna, an exhibition that consisted of three rounds within the French territory, culminating in a show at Nancy’s Beaux-Arts Museum and the publication of the book Pugna (2020). A whole body of work that explored the movement and dynamism of the human body through the different meanings of struggle and the abuse of power.
After an initial intervention at the Temple of Saint-Éloi in Rouen in 2019, various locations have subsequently hosted Aryz’s large-format installations. This intervention are an hybrid format combining muralism and studio painting, a practice the artist has been cultivating and refining in recent years. Since the initial intervention, he has garnered experience with this particular approach. This format affords more creative liberty than conventional murals, as the works are crafted in the artist’s studio and subsequently installed in the agreed-upon space. Large-format installations are advantageous in their capacity to be placed in non-traditional locations for a finite period. They represent more ambitious undertakings that necessitate substantial dedication, time investment, and preliminary studies. Nonetheless, they also possess the richness of engendering unique and ephemeral interpretations.
He currently lives and works in Cardedeu. Painting, etching, monotype and screen printing are part of his studio practice. His interest in printing techniques led him to link up with the art publisher Polígrafa, with whom he regularly produces printed editions. The resulting works are exhibited in shows and art fairs such as Art Basel Hong Kong or Arco Madrid.
His last pictorial series called Vestigio arises from a dialogue with baroque paintings, sculptures, and photographs that caught Aryz attention. The series explores the fragmentation, anatomy, and representation of movement in a new way.