2013 VISUAL ARTIST

SEBASTIAN SPRENG

Born in 1956 in Esperanza, Santa Fe (Argen­tina), Sebastian Spreng is a self-taught artist. His professional painting career started at the age of sixteen in Buenos Aires in the group exhibit Artists from Esperanza at the Fundación Lowe. The next year he had his first solo exhibit at Martina Céspedes Gallery. The show was sold out on opening night and the gallery held his work exclusively for the next decade.

He moved to Miami in 1987 and has been a strong presence in the Florida art scene ever since. In recent years, he has had exhibits at the Americas Collection, Coral Gables, Arden Gallery in Boston, Anthony Ardavin and Timothy Tew Galleries in Atlanta, Friesen Gal­lery in Seattle, Sun Valley Gallery in Idaho, the Toronto International Art Fair, and the Arteaméricas Art Fair in Coconut Grove, Florida, as well as the Lowe Art Museum (Miami) in the Paradise Lost show. He has won the Hortt Competition at the Museum of Fort Lauderdale and the 1995 Personal Achievement Award from the Muscular Dys­trophy Association for the State of Florida.

Music is present in his work and whole galleries have been based on musical structures, with series titledLiederkreis, Wagner’s Ring, Sinfonietta, Impromptus, Chamber Music, and Reverberations. Spreng also writes about classical music for magazines and newspapers as the U.S. correspondent for Argentina’s foremost classical music magazine, Clásica. He also writes for El Nuevo Herald/Miami Herald and Opera News and has interviewed countless world-renowned musicians. In Miami he is represented by Kelley Roy Gallery.

He also writes a blog, Miami Clasica, and for the Knight Arts Foundation.

Join us on Open House Day (July 20) for a special Café Conversation with Sebastian Spreng (11:45 a.m., Martin Family Hall). Spreng’s work will be displayed on campus throughout the festival.

Music@Menlo’s Visual Artist is generously supported by Libby and Craig Heimark.