Bio

Jorge Centofanti is an Argentine-born artist whose work reinterprets guadamecí—the historic art of embossed, gilded and polychromed leather—through a contemporary lens.

Born in Buenos Aires in 1944, he began his creative life as a writer and traveller before settling in Paris in 1968. There, he trained in leatherwork within traditional ateliers, developing a mastery of moulding, embossing, engraving, dyeing and gilding. These techniques would become the foundation of a practice that transforms leather into a medium of light, depth and form.

In 1973, Centofanti moved to London and established his studio. His early research into the origins of guadamecí led to a series of leather wall panels exhibited at the Federation of British Artists in 1977, marking the beginning of his recognition as a contemporary interpreter of this rare tradition. His work was also featured on BBC television (Pebble Mill at One), introducing wider audiences to the expressive potential of leather as a fine art medium.

Over the following decades, Centofanti developed a distinctive body of work that bridges historical technique and contemporary abstraction. His pieces are sculptural surfaces in which relief, gold and colour interact with light, creating works that shift between object, image and architecture.

His work has been exhibited internationally, with solo exhibitions in London and New York, and participation in group exhibitions across Europe and beyond. In 1992, he was commissioned by Northampton City Council to create a leather Coat of Arms, unveiled by HM Queen Elizabeth II. His works are held in museum collections dedicated to leather and craft, and have been acquired by private collectors internationally, including Cartier in Paris.

In recent years, working from his studio in the south of France, Centofanti has continued to refine his practice through the series Illuminations—a body of work centred on gold leaf and sculpted white leather. His exhibition Iluminaciones del Arte Guadamecí, held in Córdoba in 2025, brought together more than fifty works and marked a return to the historical centre of the tradition that informs his practice.

Today, his work stands as a rare continuation of an almost forgotten art form—reimagined through a contemporary language of light, material and quiet intensity.