Chema Cobo (Tarifa, Cadiz, 1952) is a fundamental painter to understand the History of Spanish Contemporary Art. In its beginnings he was closely related to Nueva Figuracion Madrileña.
In 1975, he had his first solo exhibition at the Buades Gallery in Madrid. From the beginning of the 80s, he moves away from the ideas of his beginnings and connects with international movements such as Neo-Expressionism and Transvanguardia. In 1981 he is resident artist in P.S.1 in New York and participates in the XVI Biennial of Sao Paulo and “Salón de los 16” in the Museum of Contemporary Art of Madrid. The year after, he participates in the Carnegie International of Pittsburgh. In 1983 he is invited to several exhibitions in Europe and in the United States, one of the most important “Recent European Pictures” at the Salomón R. Guggenheim of New York.The same year he exhibits in the Zolla Lieberman Gallery in Chicago for the first time.
The 80s continued with solo exhibitions in Seattle, Boston, Milan, Rome, Madrid, Berna and Nagoya (Japan). It is noted his exhibition at the Mezzanine Gallery in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 1987. The first of his individual exhibition at the Charles Cowles Gallery in New York in 1988.
In the 90s he was visiting teacher at the NY School of Art in New York, at Northwestern University in Chicago and at the Art School of the Chicago Institute of Art. In 1994 he received Premio Andalucía de Artes Plásticas. Several exhibitions in Europe and Spain are followed.
In 2009, Chema Cobo won the “Francisco de Goya” Painting Prize from the Villa de Madrid. He had made many exhibitions in Galleries and Museums getting deep in the master lines of his work in his more than 40 years of work.