Victor Castillo

Victor Castillo was born in Santiago, Chile in 1973. He began drawing obsessively at the age of five, inspired by the animations he saw on television, science fiction movies, and the illustrations on record covers such as Pink Floyd’s “The Wall”.

Following studies at the University of Art and Social Sciences (ARCIS) and the Catholic University of Chile, Victor joined the independent experimental art collective Caja Negra in Santiago, creating multimedia installations.

In 2004 Victor moved to Barcelona, Spain, where he dedicated himself to painting and established his style with references to comics, graffiti, and old master paintings, particularly Goya’s Black Paintings after seeing them at the Prado Museum.

Victor’s Explicit Lyrics exhibition with Iguapop Gallery in 2007 was a critical success with the national newspaper El País publishing a full-page article about his tragicomic vision titled The Triumph of Pop Surrealism.

Victor’s first solo exhibition in the United States When the Heavens Open was with Roq La Rue in Seattle, followed by Gameland with Merry Karnowsky Gallery, and in 2010 Victor moved to Los Angeles, California, where he lives and works.

Victor Castillo is represented internationally by Isabel Croxatto Galeria in Chile. He has presented multiple solo shows with KP Projects | Merry Karnowsky Gallery in Los Angeles, Helium Cowboy in Hamburg, Jonathan Levine Gallery in New York City, and the seminal Iguapop Gallery in Barcelona before it closed in 2010.

Victor was featured in the traveling museum exhibition Turn the Page: The First Ten Years of High Fructose (USA, 2016–17), and in the Les Enfantes Terribles exhibition during the Lyon Biennale of Contemporary Art (France, 2011). Victor’s work has been presented by Isabel Croxatto at international art fairs Ch.ACO Santiago, Istanbul Contemporary, Art Central Hong Kong, and ZONA MACO Mexico City, among many other galleries and fairs worldwide.

Victor has created murals for the National Museum of Fine Arts (MNBA) and Centro Gabriela Mistral (GAM) in Santiago, Chile; the Museum of Modern Art in Chiloe; the Center for Contemporary Culture Barcelona (CCCB), Spain; and the Fabbrica di Vapore Che exhibition in Milan, Italy.

Hollywood Dreams, a 6-minute short film by Loica and Barefoot Productions about Victor's work, won the Gold Remi Award at the 52nd Annual WorldFest-Houston in 2018.