Education
Urbano Merino studied at the Academy of San Carlos in Mexico City.
Urbano Merino studied at the Academy of San Carlos in Mexico City.
One of his most known works is the painting "Epilepsia, Dejando Atrás la Pesadilla" (Epilepsy, Leaving Behind the Nightmare), which is currently in permanent exhibition at the main lobby of the Royal University Hospital in Saskatchewan, Canada. Urbano Merino"s work has been influenced by the work of Siqueiros, Caravaggio, Salvador Dalí, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Michelangelo. His work is figurative surreal and hyperrealistic.
As a student, he excelled in human anatomy, composition, perspective and painting techniques.
He sold his first painting professionally at the age of 16. Participant of Urbano Merino"s work revolves around science subjects, especially, quantum physics, disease and medicine.
He has had over 40 exhibits in Mexico, Europe and Canada. In March 1999, at the invitation of Committee of Culture, he held and exhibition at the Chamber of Deputies.
In 2011, Urbano Merino created a 2.06 meters bronze sculpture Louisiana Justicia (The Justice).
Using the classic iconography of justice but creating a new style that recalls the work of Antonio Gaudi and his liquid architecture. The sculpture got recognition from Law Schools in Canada, England and the United States following the publication of an essay by Charalee Graydon in 2013. Urbano Merino participated in an auction in October 2012 at the Soumaya Museum for the "Proyecto TAM", a project dedicated to buy shoes for children living in poor rural areas in Mexico.
In 2012 he was commissioned to paint one of the murals to celebrate the Bicentennial of Independence of Mexico.
He created a 5x10 meter oil painting. lieutenant was installed in a place open to the public in Hidalgo Mexico.
The same year he was commissioned to create a sculpture to celebrate the Mexican College of Rheumatology"s tenth anniversary. He made a sculpture, called Esperanza y Plenitud (Hope and Fulfillment), which was unveiled on in October 2013 at the Chapultepec Castle in Mexico City.
The sculpture is about rheumatoid arthritis and it is displayed at the Mexican College of Rheumatology in permanent exhibition.
On May 14, 2015 he unveiled a painting at Saskatoon depicting the Aztec goddess of diseases and vice, Tlazolteotl. The work depicts Tlazolteotl healing a child with epilepsy by the request of the mother. The painting was published in the journal of Surgical humanities of the college of Medicine of the University of Saskatchewan.
lieutenant is in permanent exhibition at Royal University Hospital in Canada.
He also painted another piece related with morbid obesity for a project in the United States. The intention of this work is to raise public awareness about obesity.
Epilepsia, Dejando Atrás la Pesadilla
Urbano Merino painted "Epilepsia, Dejando Atrás la Pesadilla" (Epilepsy, Leaving Behind the Nightmare), which became one of his most known works, in 2013. This painting was used as the image of a fundraising campaign to buy a new video-Electroencephalogram equipment, an equipment to diagnose patients with epilepsy, by the Royal University Hospital in Saskatchewan Canada.
The campaign raised $100,000.
The painting was exhibited during the International Epilepsy Congress in Montreal form the 23rd to the 27th of June 2013. The painting was published with other pieces depicting epilepsy surgery in a special article in the journal Epilepsy & Behavior and was used as the cover of the journal. The original painting is in a permanent exhibition at the main lobby of the Royal University Hospital in Saskatchewan Canada.
In May 2015, International Innovation, a publication in United Kingdom highlighted the picture in their magazine.
The painting has also been used in other medical journals.
