The painter Juan Luis Goenaga was born in the city of San Sebastián (Gipúzcoa) on 9 January 1950. He began to explore his passion for art during his adolescence. Though he was largely self-taught, his growing interest in art encouraged him to join the Asociación Artística de San Sebastián, where he was able to meet other artists and begin to develop his skills properly.

In 1969, he decided to take his education in art seriously and to study engraving. With this purpose in mind, he moved to Barcelona where he soon immersed himself in the city’s vibrant cultural scene, which proved a very rewarding experience. Later, his thirst for knowledge took him to Paris, where he engaged with sculpture in materials like iron and stone.

His introspective personality and meticulous approach to the study of art led Goenaga to withdraw to his family home, a typical caserío in Alkiza, a small rural village in Gipúzcoa where he lived and worked since 1970. In this quiet setting, he found the inspiration he needed to explore the essence of nature and rural life in the Basque Country and to render it in art form. His work is characterized by a profound connection with the more primordial abstract elements of nature (air, fire, water, earth) as well as the more tangible elements of the landscape like branches and roots. This gave rise to a number of series such as Itzalak (Shadows, in Basque) from 1972 to 1973; Belarrak (Grasses), from 1973 to 1975; and Sustraiak (Roots) from 1974 to 1976, to name just a few. Goenaga’s goal in these works was to capture the intrinsic beauty of these natural elements and to convey it to beholders, inviting them to think about the relationship between humans and their environment.

In the 1970s, he embarked on several trips to various European countries, giving him a chance to soak up the happening art movements of the time. On returning home, he began to develop a keen interest in Basque history and popular culture, elements that would soon became central to his practice. A later visit to Italy with the aim of studying the great masters of the past and their techniques marked another new beginning in Goenaga's career. During this period, he started to introduce concepts such as magic, surrealism and abstraction in his practice, giving rise to works challenging traditional conventions.
In the 1980s, he started incorporating the human figure into his compositions, placing it in colourful urban settings. During this phase, he travelled to Germany several times, where the influences he discovered there led him to integrate expressionism into his art. In this regard, he applied materials with intense energetic gesturality, thus further enriching his distinctive personal style.

He was awarded the Gure Artea prize in 1987, granted by the Basque Government. That same year, he began experimenting with a wide variety of materials such as nets, plastics and resins. He also started incorporating diverse materials and objects into his creations, striving to make a direct connection with his surroundings, life and the organic. The 1990s saw a return to his roots, leading him to explore the primitive through a darker painting constructed in successive layers, creating a structure with great visual impact.

In 1993, Goenaga held a painting workshop at the Arteleku art centre in San Sebastián and, in 2003, he held workshops at the Kubo Hall in Kursaal, also in San Sebastián, and at Fundación Bilbao Arte in Bilbao.

In his more recent works, running the gamut from abstraction to figuration, he left behind darker tones to embrace the luminosity of blues, reds and greens, applied with lush dense materiality.