Home  ›  20th century Art  ›  21st Century Art  ›  Chilean Art
Textual description of firstImageUrl

Federico Infante, 1982 | Surrealist painter /Illustrator

By Art periods and styles , ,
Born in Santiago, Chile, Federico Infante works predominantly in the medium of painting, he received his BFA from Finis Terrae University (Santiago, Chile) in 2002 and graduated in 2013 with his MFA in Illustration from the School of Visual Arts in New York. He was the recipient of the Uanlane Foundation Scholarship (2012), the Conicyt Scholarship (2009), and the Juan Downey Grant (2004).











He has had several successful solo and group exhibitions in Chile, New York and Italy and his work has been adopted into private collections around the world.
In 2015 he illustrated Nabokov's masterpiece, Lolita, edited by The Folio Society.
Currently Federico’s work can be seen at Punto Sull’Arte Gallery (Italy), I’ll Corregio Museum (Italy), MasseyLyuben Gallery (New York), Animal Gallery (Chile) and Saint-Dizier Gallery (Canada). Federico is currently living and working in New York City.

  • Work Statement

Each of my paintings is deeply unique and emerges through its own process. I start with an expressive act of covering the canvas with several layers of acrylic paint and then scratching it off. I repeat this process many times. I do not plan my images in advance and try to stay present and as detached as possible from the result. In doing this I am able to express my unconscious mind, the part of me that has not been processed by logic. 
I then react to this abstract and expressive atmosphere, by searching for the elements that have emerged, possibly in pockets of light, or the foundations of a landscape. In this way each painting shows me its singular identity.
At this point I open the process up to ration, the part of myself that tries to understand reality, to decode what my subconscious has expressed and make it tangible. I then paint the figurative elements of this atmosphere. Often a person standing alone, or a piece of architecture coming out of the dark or an open sky that implies the presence of an unseen figure.
Through this process I am able to investigate the tension between the subconscious that drives us and the logic with which we make sense of and understand our everyday lives. Although this is a deeply personal process, the tension and ambiguity of the circumstances that often arise allow this experience to be related by any viewer.


Awards and Honors
  • 2015 Semi-finalist NYFA Basil H. Alkazzi Award for Excellence;
  • 2012 Uanlane Foundation Scholarship;
  • 2009 Conicyt Scholarship;
  • 2004 Juan Downey Grant.


















Federico Infante è nato a Santiago -Cile.
Ogni suo dipinto ha un personale processo di intuizione creativa. Inizia con l'atto metodico, espressivo di ricoprire la tela con diversi strati di pittura, graffiandola e ripetendo questo processo molte volte, cercando così di esprimere l'inconscio, la parte di sé che non è ancora stata elaborata dalla logica.
Solo in seguito Federico inizia a visualizzare le situazioni, i paesaggi e i punti di luce all'interno della tela, cercando una atmosfera suggestiva e fertile che dia vita a quello che ritiene essere l'elemento figurativo del dipinto: una persona in piedi, una parte di architettura che emerge dal buio, un cielo sereno.
Federico Infante ha frequentato la Finis Terrae University a Santiago (Cile) e la School of Visual Art a New York. Ha realizzato numerose mostre personali e collettive di successo negli Stati Uniti, in Cile ed in Italia. Il suo lavoro fa parte di collezioni private negli Stati Uniti, in Europa (Francia, Belgio, Germania ed Italia), Arabia Saudita e Singapore.
Nel 2015 ha illustrato l'Edizione di "Lolita" di Vladimir Nabokov pubblicata da The Folio Society. Vive e lavora a New York.

  • 2015 Semi-finalist NYFA Basil H. Alkazzi Award for Excellence;
  • 2012 Uanlane Foundation Scholarship;
  • 2009 Conicyt Scholarship;
  • 2004 Juan Downey Grant.