"Through architecture, we can better understand the human condition."
Nicolás Lisardo (b. 1978, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain) is a contemporary artist whose multidisciplinary practice explores the relationship between architecture, memory, time, and human experience. Through highly detailed sculptural constructions, he transforms urban structures into powerful reflections on the social, psychological, and philosophical realities of contemporary life.
Lisardo studied Interior Design and Design Culture at the Escola de Art i Disseny EINA, affiliated with the Autonomous University of Barcelona. During his years in Barcelona, he developed a critical perspective on urbanism and society, particularly while witnessing the gradual dismantling of the industrial district of Poble Nou between 2004 and 2009. The disappearance of factories, workshops, railways, and working-class neighbourhoods left a profound mark on his artistic vision and would later become a central theme throughout his work.
Rather than treating architecture as a purely functional structure, Lisardo views buildings as repositories of memory and human experience. His meticulously crafted facades, often marked by corrosion, abandonment, and decay, reveal the emotional and symbolic life of places. Through these works, he explores how societies transform, how collective memories disappear, and how the spaces we build ultimately reflect our aspirations, contradictions, and vulnerabilities.
A defining aspect of his practice is the concept of Neodramatism, a theoretical framework developed through years of research and formalized in his 2023 book Neodramatismo: Aequinoctium pater noster. Combining aesthetic theory, philosophy, ethics, and personal experience, the project examines the existential and metaphysical challenges of contemporary society. Within this framework, architecture becomes both a metaphor and a tool for understanding the human condition.
Influenced by the tradition of vanitas, post-industrial landscapes, and artists such as Gordon Matta-Clark, Lisardo's work balances creation and destruction, permanence and impermanence. His sculptures are not simply representations of ruined buildings; they are carefully constructed meditations on the passage of time, the fragility of human ambition, and the evolving relationship between people and the environments they inhabit.
Lisardo has exhibited internationally at Art Miami, Art Madrid, Estampa Art Fair, JustLX Lisbon Art Fair, and Galería Manuel Ojeda, among others. His works are included in public and private collections including the Fundación Carmen y Lluís Bassat in Barcelona and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Suzdal, Russia. He currently lives and works in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and collaborates with Galería Manuel Ojeda and Laurent Marthaler Contemporary.