Daniel Escardó was born in Montevideo (Uruguay) in 1957. His great-grandfather was an engineer; his grandfather was a well-known doctor; his father was a radiologist, a professor of anatomy in the School of Fine Arts, and had hobbies such as archaeology and art. His mother was interested in literature and writing poetry.
Escardó spent his adolescence in his father’s clinic, surrounded by archaeological specimens, human bones, the dark room and the laboratory. The cellars of the clinic were full of old physical-therapy aids from the 1930s. The libraries contained of material on anatomy and art.

During the seventies, Escardó completes his baccalaureate in engineering, and discovers he has a passion for the geometry of space. He later expands this knowledge by becoming skilled in the use of software for managing 3D models. His interest in photography and video then lead him to record all kinds of living forms and study biological geometries.

All these roots and fads begin to bear fruit and coalesce in a very personal form of art. In 1975 he begins to produce his first drawings and paintings. His initial works are huge acrylics on canvas, in which he uses new techniques that he himself develops in research workshops. During the ‘80s he switched to airbrush and sweeping turbine techniques with acrylic paints diluted in great amounts of water, so that it ran on the canvas impelled by the turbines. At that stage he also works resorting to the weather, rain and wind have a role to play in his work. He receives the “1986 Inca Painting Award” and the “Elizabeth Rosenfeld Award” at the Gramado Biennial in Brazil.

Between the years 1983 and 1985 he participates in the workshop of Guillermo Fernandez (one of the youngest disciples of Torres García). In the Fernández workshop Escardó begins to use the logical-geometrical system that the master had developed as a teaching method. With him he also analyses Rembrandt´s drawings, taking photos of small portions with macro lenses, generating enormous enlargements, and revealing a system of constructive symbols with which Rembrandt made up his images.

In the 90s Escardó improves his painting technique and discards complexities and finally returns to the simplicity of brush and ink on canvas, showing a preference for drawing at high speed. This is when “Dibujos Ambidextros” (Ambidextrous Drawings) appear, a series of geometrical drawings using both hands.

In 1990 he starts to develop his first notions of dynamic sculpting. This sculpting technique is based on patterns that are repeated until the general structure of the piece is reached. The geometry and forms governing all living organisms have since become a focal point in all his work.

In 1991 he wins the “Alcan Grand Award” in sculpture with his “Dodecahedron”. This work sets the starting point of a special constructive system: for the first time Escardó brings into play a system which recalls the children’s toy “Meccano”. The results drive him to research further into this sculpting technique. After spending all of 1992 in North America, he returns to Montevideo, where he begins to perfect the concept of dynamic sculpture by executing large pieces included in the “El Zoo Mecanimental” (Mechanical-Mental Zoo) and “Save The Humans” installations. During this stage, Escardó adds neon and argon gas to his work, inserting this linear inner light within metal structures.

In 1996 he plunges into researching in the use of 3D management software. This allows him to polish his geometric concepts, and he manages to apply the new techniques to two different activities: sculpture and engraving. The “Naturaleza Digital” (Digital Nature) series of engravings was conceived in 3-D Max, a software that generates virtual objects and which helps him develop his own geometry, which he then wraps in a “skin” provided by the images of his painting and sculpting. This computer-based handling of a virtual reality blended with his return to working with matter itself produces a feedback; and his geometrical world starts to interact and becomes increasingly richer.

In early 2000, Escardó comes up with yet another system of sculpting in cast aluminum, while maintaining the concept that these elements are generic and consequently their function may change: a head can be a base, and vice versa. With this new technique Escardó creates a series of pieces, the elements of which are interconnected in such a way that once the sculpture is constructed, all the parts can be moved to modify both expression and attitude.

This new approach results in the “Especies en Vías de Aparición” series (an untranslatable play of words which means the opposite of endangered species), in which most of his previously acquired knowledge is integrated: ranging from traditional cast metal to state-of-the-art computer technology. The originals are not static but modifiable, thus allowing for successive changes to be introduced in the new creations: the sculptures evolve and behave as a true biological species.

Nowadays his research leads him to develop great structures, using the acquired knowledge, synthesizing shapes. In some way this draws him towards the geometrical, but never entirely discarding his biological beginnings.

Latest Exhibitions

2007- Galeria de las Misiones José Ignacio 2004- “Objectum” Montevideo World Trade Center 2003-Objects from the “Salisis” series - OAS Washington DC 2002-“Juguetes de Culto” (Toys of Cult) – Kreuzberg Hall, Berlin 2003-Uruguay Cultural Foundation for the Arts – Washington DC 2002-Permanent Collection – Latin Collector Gallery – New York
2002-“Nautas” – permanent collection – Montevideo World Trade Center -2001 South-Art, Miami -2001 “Especies en vías de aparición” (Emerging Species) – Latin Art Gallery, Miami 1999 “Un Mundo Solvente” (A Reliable World) – Installation – American Art Museum – Maldonado, Uruguay