Orlando Pelayo was born in Gijón on December 14, 1920, and died in Oviedo on March 15, 1990, at the age of 69. He spent his childhood in Extremadura and then his adolescence in Albacete. In 1939, after the Spanish Civil War, he went into exile in Algeria with his father, where they were interned in Spanish refugee camps. His father died in Algeria, and Pelayo became a Spanish teacher and ceramics designer. He began exhibiting his works in 1943 and met literary figures such as Albert Camus and Jean Sénac.
In 1947, Pelayo moved to Paris, frequented Montparnasse and Saint-Germain-des-Prés, and rubbed shoulders with many Spanish and French painters, including Giacometti, Dominguez, Antoni Clavé, and Eduardo Pisano. He exhibited at the Salon d'Automne from 1952 and participated in the Salon de Mai and the Salon des Indépendants in the 1960s. His painting, initially figurative and then non-figurative, evolved towards neo-figurative expressionism. He also produced book illustrations and tapestry designs for the Gobelins factory. Orlando Pelayo died in Oviedo after a long illness, leaving behind a rich and diverse career, representative of the new School of Paris.
