José Manuel Egea

Born in Madrid in 1988, José Manuel Egea has been a fan of Marvel Comics superheroes since the age of 10, particularly Jack Russell the werewolf and Hulk, the green giant whom he enjoys imitating. The transformation from man to beast, from human to powerful, terrifying, and indestructible creature, fascinates him. It is at the center of all his creations, produced since 2010 within the “Debajo del sombrero” (Under the Hat) creative center, which welcomes people with mental disabilities.

Egea has no difficulty connecting with “the wolf part”—as he calls it—that resides in every individual. He knows it well, expressing it during crises when he needs to scream and tear all sorts of things, especially his clothes, to calm himself down. His family recounts how at home, Egea has the habit of tearing paper, preferably magazines and illustrated books (especially those on art), which must therefore be hidden to prevent him from cutting them or tearing off their covers.

A large part of his work involves altering selected photographs from magazines, which he sketches over with a ballpoint pen until the portrait, buried under the darkness of the ink, disappears to give way to the monster. His pen summons the animal residing within the portrait subject, struggling to emerge.

A series of words or phrases that he mysteriously repeats particularly attract him: androgynous, birth, transformation, sacristy, being born naked, umbilical cord, mannequin, beach, becoming half man half wolf, hypertrichosis, remaining black forever, hominids—the latter word, it seems, frightens him a lot.