SOTOO, Etsuro

Etsuro SotooEtsuro Sotoo was born in Fukuoka, Japan, in 1953. In 1977 he graduated from the Kyoto University of Fine Arts and worked as a teacher in Japan. In 1978 he started working in Barcelona as a sculptor in the Temple of the Sagrada Familia, designed by Antoni Gaudi`. He has been a professor at the Escola Taller attached to the Temple since 1989. He has sculpted hundreds of pieces for the Temple, and in 2000 he completed, with the "15 Angels," the Nativity Facade of the Sagrada Familia which was started by Gaudi` over one hundred years earlier. Also in Barcelona, in 1991 he collaborated in the restoration of the Domenech i Muntaner di Canet de Mar Museum, and in 2004 he authored the monument to Luis Vitton in Barbera` del Valles. Sotoo has also created several works of art for his hometown, where he is a university professor. He is the author of several publications, and was awarded the Ars Spiritis Prize of Lladro` in 2002 and the Fukuoka Prize for Culture in 2003.