An Wei (b. 1990 Madrid, Spain) lives and works in Madrid.

With An it was love at ‘pear’ sight. Manuela was part of a research group at Museo CA2M in Móstoles, Madrid for the better part of this year, and so she would always be greeted by a painting of pears that is part of An’s installation Mudar Costumbre located in the first floor of the museum. Intrigued by the artist behind them she proposed to the team to arrange a studio visit. 

 

Much like his pieces, An delivers himself with simplicity and charm but a closer look gives away his complex way of thinking. Painting is his sole job, and he works hard. In the past 3 years he has been awarded the Pictorial Investigation Prize Mario Antolín awarded by BMW (2019), XXXI Circuitos de las Artes Plásticas de la Comunidad de Madrid (2020) and Ayudas a las Artes Plásticas de la Comunidad de Madrid (2021). In 2022, he was part of the collective exhibition Yupi, winner of the prize ‘Se Busca Comisario’ in the Sala de Arte Joven of  Madrid and as we’ve already mentioned, has a permanent installation in the first floor of CA2M. 

For him painting is a vehicle, not an end. He is interested in generating environments where the spectator becomes an accomplice of the scene. Painting is an expanded process that begins with the action of observation. For this particular collaboration with La Pera, An created 10 pieces that include themes, objects and ideas from his usual installation pieces, which are testimony of his everyday life, the passage of time and some autobiographical references. The pieces, although conceived as separate units are all part of the same narrative, for instance, the pieces The artist and the portrait and Ventana are together a reference to his current studio, where we met him: an artificially lit basement studio with no windows but those painted by him in the six years he has inhabited it.