Néstor René Neyret is a visual artist based in Funes, Santa Fe Province, Argentina. His work belongs to contemporary figuration, exploring the human condition through formal fragmentation and chromatic intensity. He has developed a sustained body of work focused on the human figure as a psychological and symbolic space, addressing themes of identity, memory, and social tension. His works are part of private collections and are exhibited on international contemporary art platforms. Learn more about Néstor Neyret and his artwork in today’s Maker Monday.
Andrew Joseph: What is your favorite place to find inspiration?
Néstor Neyret: I draw inspiration from life itself, from the people around me, and from simple glances or situations I observe on the street. I also find inspiration in my own life experiences. If there is one thing people will always find in my work, it is genuine inspiration — there are no empty paintings. I always tell a simple story that God places before me as I walk through life. If you look closely at my work, you will see this in every piece. I often say: “Your gaze can inspire me.”
AJ: What is your favorite aspect of your work?
NN: Painting gives me emotional freedom and connects me deeply with the purest part of my conscious and unconscious mind while I mix colors and listen to music.
AJ: How do you approach a new project?
NN: My process begins with drawing. From there, the search for the main idea is almost unconscious until I discover the central concept, always inspired by a real-life situation and the people involved in it. The sketch takes its final shape when I transfer it to the canvas or whatever surface I will paint on.
Abstraction plays a very deep role in my paintings. Wassily Kandinsky is always present in my work. Points and lines represent people, emotions, weather, and the contradictions of what I want the viewer to perceive. Sometimes colors follow their own rules within my paintings. As I often say: “The sky is not always blue.”
AJ: What is your favorite place to find inspiration?
NN: The street. It has always given me extraordinary stories. It is a place where nothing is planned and everything unfolds spontaneously. It is truly my favorite place.
AJ: How do you stay organized while working on multiple projects?
NN: My work is quite organized because I only create when inspiration is present. I often work on several projects at the same time, and this keeps me motivated. In fact, the more things I am working on, the more organized I become. The real challenge comes when there is silence.
AJ: What has been the most challenging project you have worked on, and how did you overcome it?
NN: One of my most challenging projects was painting a mural in São Paulo. I was selected as a Catalan (Spanish) artist, even though I am Argentine and had no previous experience painting murals.
The project was initially very raw. The organizers wanted a mural representing the Gothic Quarter of Barcelona, and I created it by including all the invisible characters of that world: immigrants, prostitutes, tourists, musicians, and others. Hidden within the mural was a deeper historical layer referring to the dictatorship of Francisco Franco. The bullet marks from that era are still visible on the walls of Barcelona. One particularly tragic event involved the bombing of a square where innocent children were killed.
When I explained this concept, the people who hired me rejected the idea. However, I painted it anyway in a symbolic and abstract form. They never realized it; in fact, they even took photos in front of it. A pig holding a glass of cava represented the Franco regime.
That is the power of abstraction, Neo-Cubism, and the freedom of color and line. The connection between the artwork and the artist is deeply personal and only becomes fully open to the world when the artist explains it.
AJ: How do you stay creative and inspired?
NN: It is difficult to explain. The need to create appears almost magically. I feel something, I connect with it, and then I draw — the first step toward the canvas and paint.
Inspiration is constantly present in the world around us. We simply need to observe carefully and then express through art what connects us to the reality of the people walking through today’s world, where the loneliness of globalization both connects and disconnects us from our deepest feelings.
There is so much to tell through painting, and I have a great deal to say.
AJ: What was the last book you read, and how did it inspire you?
NN: The last book I read was Lust for Life by Irving Stone, a magnificent biographical novel about Vincent van Gogh. It has inspired me deeply on this difficult path of being an artist. It taught me that adversity is necessary to discover inspiration through pain. That is where the purest and most intimate works of the artist’s soul are born. I feel that I am walking that same path.
AJ: Can you tell us about a specific moment in your career that made you feel accomplished?
NN: There is no single moment, but there are several that I remember clearly. In many of them, I have seen people cry when they viewed my paintings and heard the stories behind them. It is as if they become fully aware of the artwork and its message, and they feel connected to the character’s story. It is an indescribable but deeply rewarding experience. When someone is moved by one of my paintings, it tells me that I am doing the right thing and leaving my mark.
AJ: How do you balance functionality and aesthetics in your designs?
NN: My work does not follow a specific concept of functionality. Instead, the story, the message, the aesthetics, and the visual balance are essential to the way my mind works.
Line, point, and color are fundamental elements in my art. If an idea works in my mind, I trust that my paintings will find their own function and the right place to exist.
AJ: What do you enjoy most about being an artist?
NN: Being an artist means painting and leaving on the canvas a story that did not exist before. And, of course, signing it with my name.
AJ: What would be your dream project or dream client right now?
NN: My dream project would be to create a work inspired by love, with God as the client.
I want to connect with people all over the world, and one of my greatest dreams is for that artwork to be exhibited in a major gallery in New York City.
AJ: What is the best advice you would give to your teenage self?
NN: Do not watch so much television. Paint, play the guitar, and read as much as possible.
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