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Guim Tió Zarraluki (b. 1987 in Barcelona) is an emerging Spanish artist who takes a bright swipe at contemporary standards of beauty with his astounding, beautifully bizarre, portraits. In his practice Gium Tió alters fashion magazine images with chemicals and oil pastels transforming attractive models into abstract, and sometimes unsettling, figures. The primordial picture is almost completely buried by a new geological level. Only a small part of the magazine is left untouched or barely altered, as a trace of the subject’s past life.

His research stems from his study of the human condition, in which he adds humor, irony and at times some provocation creating haunting and abstract characters with bug-like eyes, exaggerated noses, elongated necks and bold colours.

Although much of his work features portraits sourced from magazine advertisements, he also paints family members and people he personally knows directly onto canvas and wood. The result of Zarraluki’s work is majestic, vigorous, amusing and tragic at the same time.