Jose Luis Bazan

LEATHER

It is common among creators for life and work to be confused, a destiny that is only confirmed after many years of learning, dedication and, finally, mastery, which ends up merging vital episodes with the created works. In José Luís Bazán (Ubrique, Cádiz) we find a living and paradigmatic example of this phenomenon. And José Luís wore the Ubriqueña skin on his own skin from the moment he was born, being as he was the third generation of family artisans. A place, a time, a life dedicated to leather that has ended up transcending tradition itself to give its craftsmanship an absolutely contemporary and renewing aesthetic expression.

And if José Luís Bazán was destined to be a leather craftsman, he also seems to have been destined to be a tireless nonconformist, as he already demonstrated in his initial training stage in which he went one by one through all the workshops where there was something new. what to learn. His father, as part of his education, guided him in choosing the teachers with whom he wanted to learn. Training that the artisan claims to have not yet completed, but that would take him years later to continue in different geographies. A trajectory of learning and search that he gradually developed with his own, different, unique technique and language, which would inevitably lead him to distance himself and distinguish himself from mass-market leather goods to create a personal, different, artistic universe. As a result of this unique ethical and aesthetic attitude, José Luís Bazán will become a different, special craftsman, who both with his own projects and with collaborations - some as important as the one he made in 2015 with Jonathan Anderson, Loewe's chief designer for the BOWL series - have made it an international reference in leather crafts.

The series of bowls, plates and trays by José Luís Bazán form their own aesthetic where wavy lines and bright colors create friendly, clean, simple shapes that transmit a calm, tranquil sensuality. They are pieces that transform the energy of the space they inhabit, giving them a colorful and elegant peace. Objects that invite us to touch them gently, like we caressed skin.

The work of José Luís Bazán -both for its originality and for its technical mastery-, made from his temple-workshop from Benaocaz (Cádiz), has led him to be one of the artisans selected by the Michellangelo Fundation, the very important international private institution that promotes and preserves excellent craftsmanship as a cultural treasure not only of the past, but, above all, of the future. A future with which, of course, José Luís Bazán is also closely committed today: transmission, teaching the trade to new generations, love for what one does, creative freedom.

José Luís Bazán, a life skin to skin.