LETO
Interview with the Spanish artist

Interview with Leto, the Spanish painter from Zaragoza.

Leto is one of my two best friends.
I stay at his place for the week, so I have to say nice things if I don’t want to end up sleeping in the street, having anal sex with a mentally challenged spanish bum. Well, thinking about it, as long as the bum don’t ask me to eat a Telepizza…
More about the Spanish artist Leto.

Leto at Bienal de Pamplona XII edicion, 2010

Leto at Bienal de Pamplona XII edicion, 2010

PLEASE INTRODUCE YOURSELF
My name is Leto, I’m french artist (doing paintings, illustration and installation), currently living and working in Spain.

Painting typical of the artist-s style

Painting typical of the artist-s style

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR WORK?
My work is somewhere around figurative expressionism. I fill my canvas with characters like popular celebrities or everything you can find in the mass media. Manuel Ocampo wrote that my work “deconstructs the images rules”.

Don't Let Them Kill Us

Don’t Let Them Kill Us

PLEASE SHARE WITH US YOUR WORKING PROCESS
Most of the time I start with an image that I reproduce on the canvas, and then something hard to explain happens in my head. I like to put my characters in an overloaded environment, while taking care not to lose the meaning of my work. I tend to keep a conceptual point of view more than a purely aesthetic approach.

Black and white drawing by the painter from Zaragoza

Black and white drawing by the painter from Zaragoza

HOW DOES YOUR ENVIRONMENT INFLUENCE YOUR ART
I live in Spain, and the TV programs here are very similar to what we can find in Italy. I mean “TV Basura” (trash TV). This is a great inspiration that perfectly reflects the consumer mentality in which we all live. My paintings criticize a ready-to-think society.

Painting by the Spanish artist Leto

Painting by the Spanish artist Leto

WHO ARE YOUR INFLUENCES?

  • Pieter Brueghel
  • Paul Mc Carthy
  • Cecily Brown
  • Andreas Hoffer
  • Neo Rauch
  • Manuel Ocampo

ANY LAST WORD?
Before I Die?