José Manuel Egea has been a fan of Marvel Comics superheroes since the age of 10, especially Jack Russel the Werewolf and the Hulk, the green giant he likes to imitate. The transformation of man into beast, of human being into a powerful, terrible and indestructible creature fascinates him. It is at the center of all his creation since 2010, produced at the “Debajo del sombrero” (under the hat) Creative Center which welcomes people with intellectual disabilities. Egea has no difficulty connecting with the “wolf part” — as he calls it — which he sees in every individual. He knows it well because of his fits during which he screams to calm down and tears all kinds of things, especially his clothes. A large part of his work involves modifying photographs chosen from magazines that he covers with a ballpoint pen until the portrait, buried under the blackness of the ink, disappears to give way to the monster. His pen invokes the animal residing in the portrayed person and which struggles to emerge. According to his family, Egea has the habit of tearing up paper, preferably magazines and illustrated books, especially those on art, which they must therefore hide in order to prevent him from cutting them up. He often repeats a series of words or phrases that he finds fascinating: androgynous, birth, transformation, sacristy, being born naked, umbilical cord, the mannequin, the beach, he becomes half man half wolf, hypertrichosis, remaining black forever, homids — it seems that the last word terrifies him.
Based on a biography by Christian Berst Gallery