about Fabio Esteban

Originally from El Salvador, Fabio Esteban Amador is an archaeologist, photographer and visual artist, who studied at the Art Student League and the School of Visual Arts in New York City. He went on to earn a master’s degree and doctorate in Mesoamerican archaeology from the State University of New York at Buffalo. As part of his doctoral research, Fabio Esteban excavated ancient Maya sites across the Yucatán Peninsula to investigate how these groups established their identity through art and iconography. His later interests and projects have included locations throughout regions of Central and South America, Mexico, the Caribbean, the Southwest United States and most recently, the Franco-Cantambrian region of Europe, where he has devoted his time to exploring and documenting Paleolithic cave art sites with multi-modal and multi-resolution tools that promote conservation and dissemination of the ancient art by creating immersive virtual experiences for specialists and the public at large.

In addition to his archaeological research, Fabio Esteban has worked as a founding member of Foundation OLAS, which is dedicated to capacity building in the systematic documentation of submerged archaeological sites. Previously, he served as a program and science officer for the National Geographic Society and as a host to the National Geographic television series “Mysteries of the Underworld.” In his visual media, he blends art and science, imaging and exploration, and the creation of multi-media works that promote culture, art and identity, themes that appear in his installations, paintings, photography and visual narratives. His work has appeared in National Geographicmagazine, iWatch and Tres Tiempos Magazine, the National Geographic Museum, National Museum of Anthropology, Dr. David J. Guzmán in San Salvador, the Museum of the City of New York, National Geographic’s online Explorer’s Journal and in numerous public and private gallery exhibitions.

Fabio Esteban became intrigued by fine arts at a young age and attended the School of Visual Arts in NYC, then took studio classes at the Art Student League of NY where he had influential teachers like Richard Pousette-Dart, youngest irascible from the historic Abstract Expressionist movement in New York. His work during this early period was quite dynamic and included sculpture, drawing from life and painting. He also discovered the beauty and simplicity of ink and paper and began to work on a series of sketchbooks that continue to evolve today.

“I was young and didn’t quite know how to afford my education and so I had to drop out of school yet remained engaged in creating work. I was intrigued however by history and how ancient cultures crafted their world with a powerful visual language that fused their very existence. One day as I worked as a waiter in the West Village, a person asked me where I was from and when he learned he asked if I knew about the Maya culture. I was ignorant of any details but I did remember visiting ancient sites in my youth. The next day he gifted me a book: Incidents of Travels through Central America and the Yucatan by John Lloyd Stephens and Frederick Catherwood. These two explorers had re-discovered the ancient Maya culture that had laid hidden in the forest for centuries. Stephens’ prose and Catherwood’s recreations through a camera oscura in the 1840s completely inspired me and I knew then exactly what I wanted to do with my life - I wanted to become an Expedition Artist”

In the present I continue to make art and spend much of my time in the studio, painting, imaging, drawing and sometimes just staring at the ceiling and dreaming. This is an important part of the creative process. I have also managed in all these years to develop an intense interest for photography, alternative printing methods, and essentially merging all these layers into my very own visual language. I am interested in exploring these technical aspects of creativity and I’m also very interested in exploring my own identity, heritage and ancestry which I used to fuel, construct and create narratives that provide me with ways to express my curiosity as a form of protest. I have decided not to be invisible but rather an active agent of change and inspiration. My only treasure is this absolute freedom and I am grateful to have as well as the support from all who have believed in the power of my dreams.