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Selected image from Delula's current photographic workSELECTED WORK / 01

Salvadoran visual artist

DELULA

Experimental black-and-white photography

CURRENT PHOTOGRAPHIC WORK

01 / PRACTICE

The image does not preserve a place. It reveals the unstable way in which that place survives in memory.

02

Selected work

06 WORKS

An ongoing photographic research into memory, territory and the unstable image.

Selected photographic work by Delula
01CURRENT PHOTOGRAPHIC WORK
Experimental black-and-white photograph by Delula
02CURRENT PHOTOGRAPHIC WORK
Black-and-white photographic study by Delula
03CURRENT PHOTOGRAPHIC WORK
Selected image from Delula's current photographic work
04CURRENT PHOTOGRAPHIC WORK
Experimental photographic work by Delula
05CURRENT PHOTOGRAPHIC WORK
Black-and-white work from Delula's ongoing research
06CURRENT PHOTOGRAPHIC WORK

03 / Artist statement

I do not understand photography as evidence, but as revelation. The camera is an excavation tool: it does not construct beauty; it reveals what was already there, hidden. My work moves through architecture, landscape and the human figure, not to describe them, but to attend to what remains unseen within them. I work with light and shadow, blur, opacity, superposition and the material presence of black and white to evoke emotion and communicate the invisible through the visible. In this search, places become memory and time becomes matter.

Biography

Erik Bustamante
Delula

Erik Bustamante, known as Delula, is a Salvadoran visual artist born in San Salvador on April 18, 1968. Raised in a family of artists, he began studying drawing, painting, sculpture and printmaking at the Centro Nacional de Artes (CENAR) at age eight, later continuing through workshops at the Universidad de El Salvador. Across more than three decades, his practice has moved through painting, sculpture, photography, video art, performance and installation. His current photographic work in black and white explores memory, territory and the unstable ways places survive within us.

BORN
April 18, 1968 · San Salvador, El Salvador
BASED
El Salvador
PRACTICE
Photography · Painting · Sculpture · Video art · Performance · Installation
04

Selected record

Download selected CV

Selected exhibitions and projects since 1998

Current practice

Ongoing independent photographic research and development of artist photobooks

Exhibiting since 1998

San Salvador and 15 Salvadoran Artists · Sydney, Australia

Hispanic Heritage in America ’99

The Florida Museum of Hispanic and Latin American Art · Miami, USA

Fusión al nuevo milenio · 1999

Studio 225 · San Salvador, El Salvador

Vientos Cardinales · 2000

Centro Cultural de España · San Salvador, El Salvador

Recognition

Honorable Mention · 2000

II Biennial of Painting of the Central American Isthmus · San Salvador, El Salvador / San José, Costa Rica

Solo exhibition and new media

Fuga de sentidos · 2002

Solo exhibition of video installations, performances and visual art · Centro Cultural de España

Special guest · 2004 and 2006

Video installation · First and Second National Video Competitions · Museo Nacional Dr. David J. Guzmán

Education

Centro Nacional de Artes — CENAR

Drawing, painting, sculpture and printmaking · San Jacinto, El Salvador

Universidad de El Salvador

Visual arts workshops

First “Cinema Digital” Workshop · 1999

Graduate · Led by Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Paula Heredia · New York City–San Salvador–Suchitoto

Private collections

International collections

Houston · Miami · New York · Los Angeles · Mexico City · Sydney · Madrid · San Pedro Sula · San Salvador

05 / EDITIONS

Acquire work

Artist photobooks and limited photographic editions are available in a separate acquisition section.

View editions