I work with an initial automatism of gestures, lines, and marks that generates a field of forms without a preconceived image. From that field, I select, conceal, and reinforce certain forms until a figure begins to hold together. Some of these forms suggest parts of a body: a hand, a foot, a torso, a head. A figure that remains incomplete, such as a torso without a head, is accepted as complete in itself.
My large-format paintings, around 200 x 200 cm, are worked in grisaille, acrylic and charcoal on canvas. This choice originated practically: I arrived in Berlin with only black and white paint, and working without color simplified reading form. In parallel, I work in smaller format, watercolors and drawings, where color is present and the focus is on gesture, synthesis, and the reduction of the body to a few essential marks.
I trained for seven years in the atelier of Oscar César Mara in Buenos Aires, where I learned this process of investigating forms. Since moving to Berlin in 2022, the process has continued to develop through contact with the city’s museums, exhibitions, and art scene.
The central question I return to is whether a form generated this way develops something like its own presence, independent of what it was meant to represent.
Biography
Ignacio Bertetich is an Argentine painter based in Berlin. Born in Villa Dolores, Córdoba, he studied at the National University of the Arts in Buenos Aires. Between 2009 and 2016 he was a student of Oscar César Mara, who researched alongside Juan Batlle Planas, a key reference in the psychology of form in Argentina. In Mara’s atelier, Ignacio learned the process of investigating forms that he develops in his current work. He previously studied animation in Rosario (2008-2009) and at the National University of Córdoba (2007-2008).
His work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions in Argentina and Germany, including the Sívori Museum (2016), Gisel Durán Gallery (2016, 2019), Juana de Arte Gallery (2018), Prana Gallery (2020), and Kunstraum Heartspace in Berlin (2025, 2026). In 2016 he received first prize at the Gisel Durán Gallery Contest. Recent exhibitions: Where is Your Heart? (2025), Dear AI… Something Strange Happened To Me Today (2026), and A Hidden Variable, Death? Yes/No/Maybe (2026).
Since 2022 he has lived in Berlin, where he develops a series of large-format paintings in grisaille, acrylic and charcoal on canvas, alongside smaller-format work in watercolor and drawing.