SAÚL RUIZ

Saúl Ruiz Blanco (Navarrete, 1975) is a self-taught sculptor-carver who has managed to turn his hobby and creative skills into his livelihood.

Born in La Rioja, he has a workshop in Navarrete (La Rioja), where he is a professional stone and marble carver, although he also does restoration work, wood carving, and engravings and pyrography on deer and fallow deer antlers.

He exclusively used manual methods early in his career but has introduced several pieces of machinery over the years that help him to perform certain processes more quickly.

Project.

Sinuosa II (Sinuous II) is a piece carved in sandstone on-site in a participative way during the celebration of the town’s Mercado del Trato from 2016 to 2019. This event is held in honour of old-time traders and muleteers and annually brings in several thousand people from all over the world. For this project, young and old alike carved their initials as a reminder of their passage through these lands, leaving their mark behind.

The artist created the installation’s shapes and figures earlier using free-form moulding. In 2021 he built a viewpoint called “Un alto en el camino” (A Stop on the Way), inviting the public again to participate in aspects of this project located on a hill along the Camino de Santiago.

Workshop.

The artist helped conduct several awareness-raising workshops in 2022 to turn 1 Kilómetro de Arte into an open-air museum. These workshops were held within the physical space of the project and involved marking a milestone along the Camino de Santiago in stone. La Rioja’s ASPRODEMA (Association for the Promotion of Adults with Intellectual Disabilities) also participated in the project.

These three projects have a similar focus in terms of their forms and objectives, since the artist believes that it is vitally important to involve the public in the creative process, as a form of self-improvement.

Inauguration.