Pepe Lozano

Lucena, Spain
 From among a small but prolific group of artists who could be considered the Blue
Period photorealists of contemporary ballpointing, we find Pepe Lozano quietly churning
out fine works of neoclassicism epitomizing the painterly effects achievable via ballpoint
pen which define ballpoint 'penting'. In his first interview for the English-speaking
world, Lozano tells us a little bit about himself and his work, and shares one of his newest.
You may not have heard of this Spanish artist until now — his work has only recently
begun to reach global audiences — but Lozano has been at it a bit longer than most.
Ballpoint pens have been with him all along, too, as is evident in his tightly controlled
penwork.

Born in 1955 in Córdoba, a city in the Andalusian region of

southern Spain, Lozano tells us he has been drawing in ballpoint for some thirty-two
years. Still, he considers he has only reached his full potential with the medium within the
past five years. His first exhibition came relatively late in life, in 2012, but he has been
exhibiting almost monthly since then. During that time, Lozanosupposes to have
completed approximately a hundred ballpoint drawings of the quality presented here, and
shown them in nearly thirty exhibitions, several of them sellout shows. Lozano has yet to
exhibit outside Spain, but he has traveled throughout Europe and aims for greater
international attention.
Many heavyweights of western art history have emerged from across Spain — El
Greco, Goya, Picasso, Miró and Dalí, to name a few — and Lozano claims inspiration
from ''each and every one of them'', but Lozano discloses his greatest influence from the
work of Michelangelo. The connection is evident in Lozano's handling of the female
nudes populating his own work. Mastery of the lights, darks and all subtle halftones in
between — superbly achieved by alternately delicate or thickly layered linework — fill
out Lozano's fleshy figures on the flat pages.

Lozano claims an ''innate curiosity'' in everything art-related since childhood.

Focussed studies of a more academic nature began when he was thirteen, upon entering
the School of Arts and Crafts in Córdoba.
''It was like a new world for me. I was like a sponge capable of absorbing all
trades,'' Lozano recalls. Before that, there was his mother, whom he credits as an early
artistic inspiration. Watching her carving small sculptures in wood and clay, the artist
reminisced to Lucena Now while discussing his The Magic of Bicexhibition in January,
2016, ''was my first contact with the art world, feeling the mud on my hands and seeing
something grow from nothing''. More recently, he divulged to The Ballpointer that earning
a degree was never of great interest to him, stating ''My interest was to study various
specialties that would later establish my future as an artist.'' He studied at the school for
five years, then went to work as a goldsmith. Designing and making models for jewelry,
he was able to utilize and expand his early experiences with crafts. Work with jewelry
continues to this day, including deals involving international firms, and he also scored
some awards along the way.

''It is difficult to define oneself, I have always preferred to believe more in the
opinion of those who appreciate my work, but from my point of view I can say one
thing: studying the great masters of painting and sculpture of previous centuries
and how they have given life to an image, I think they are achievements of truly
extreme difficulty, at the same time valuing and identifying in many respects with
their works and styles, it leads me to consider and define myself as an artist.''

For Lozano, drawing is a daily activity, and he puts in as much as ten hours of drawing
during any given session. Setting aside that time is a priority. ''Discipline in the world of
drawing and painting means full dedication,'' Lozano affirms. It's also a solitary activity,
and Lozano prefers to work in silence. Works in progress are always set up in his studio,
which offers space enough to accommodate works of design, drawing and painting all at
once. For his ballpoint penworks, he works on one at a time, pointing out that the quick-
drying ink doesn't necessitate finding something else to work on while fresh ink is
drying. Lozano works with very specific intentions for each work, seldom, if ever, straying
from his plans, and leaving little to chance.
One of Lozano's earliest waves of publicity came with his 2011 work titled Mendigo —
a beggar, drawn in black ballpoint — which was ''greeted with great interest by the
public''. Asked what he considers his greatest achievement with ballpoints, Lozanoshows
us Africa Recicla (Recycling Africa, pictured), which won an international competition
in 2015. The piece, drawn in blue, depicts an African woman with bottle caps adorning
her thick hairdo.

Lozano does not load his artwork with autobiographical connotations but he does
sometimes exploit recognizable works from art antiquity, reproducing their historical or
mythological subjects into his own composition. His ballpoint drawings have always been
avowedly realist, and although he often draws from real life and models, he also
sometimes uses photographic references. ''It depends on the type of drawing'',
states Lozano...
Portrait commissions have naturally become part of Lozano's output, although he
admits he'd rather spend that time with his own work. He adds, poignantly, ''The artist
must eat.'' Lozano's to-do list for the immediate future is just as straightforward, to
continue refining the ''translucency'' in his ballpoint modeling of the figures.

Lozano occasionally checks the goings-on of the ballpoint art world and is familiar with
the work of Juan Francisco Casas, another Spaniard known for photorealist artwork of
nude women drawn in blue ballpoint pen, with which Lozano's ballpoint work has been
compared. When asked his thoughts about Casas' drawings, Lozano replies, simply,
''magnifico'', but he is quick to point out that he had been working in ballpoint long before
Casas, and the two have never met. Unlike his compatriot, however, Lozano has yet to
come up against negative reaction to the nudity in his artwork. Nor should he expect to;
while Casas' drawings are locked into one-track-mind titillation and shock value, Lozano's
are more thoughtful works for mature, refined tastes. ''I don't paint grotesque women or
overly provocative views,'' Lozanorationalizes. Their techniques also produce dissimilar
results; while Casas' use of crosshatching to convey volume remains evident to the
viewer, Lozano's linework is much less discernible. And while Casas has recently started
adding color, Lozano is fine with blue. ''I tried in every color but blue vision color attracts
me especially.''

Photorealist artwork of this caliber is often ignored by avant-garde art snobs or swept
under the rug by art world intelligentsia who have a vested interest in controlling the easily
distracted interests of jet-set customers who would sooner be happy supporting the fine
talents of artists such as Lozano than later finding themselves puzzled over why they paid
so much for a six-foot tall spattering of paint signifying nothing. The offices of The
Ballpointer have no rugs ・

"Desde pequeño fui muy influenciado por toda representacion de arte por lo que
ingrese a muy temprana edad en la escuela de artes y oficios de Cordoba, pase por
todas las asignaturas artisticas desde: dibujo, pintura, modelado, orfebreria,
joyeria... lo que me llevo a una recopilacion de todo lo aprendido y poderlo plasmar
en mis obras hoy dia."Pepe Lozano, April 2016
 El Triunfo De Rómulo,

The drawing El Triunfo De Rómulo, for example (The Triumph of

Romulus, pictured), is composed from two images. For the figure in the foreground, a
model friend was photographed. Then, Lozano relates, ''I improvised the background
friezes and I thought it well to add the relief of Rómulo after assassinating his brother
Remo''. Lozano doesn't openly point out any particular significance tying that background
image of Romulus and Remus with the female nude in the foreground.
In Obsesion (Obsession, pictured) the female figures in the background are from The
Three Graces (Italy, 1817), a marble sculpture by Antonio Canova. Obsesion is part
of Lozano's Ninfas, a series of nine artworks created in 2015, which Lozanodescribes
simply as ''inspired by the beauty of women in the province of Cádiz''. Most drawings from
the series are composites of photo reference. Lozano explains his self portrait drawn
prominently into the foreground of Obsesion as a kind of signature, as this piece marked
the last of the Ninfas series.