Father of Lucas and Teo. Son of a hospital secretary from Cantabria and a schoolteacher from Navarre. Graduate in Art History and Journalism. He is the author of the visual essay Conductas envenenadas (2007), the book of illustrated stories with Sonia Pulido Chromorama (2008), the novel Todo lleva carne (2008) and the chronicles La otra Gioconda. El reflejo de un mito (2013). Later came the essays Las invisibles. Why the Prado Museum ignores women (2020), Decapitated. A history against monuments to racists, slavers and invaders (2021) and Bourbons and Quinces. The Unreal Family of Antonio López (2022).
He also curated the group exhibition “Esculturismo” in 2008 at Alcalá 31 (Madrid).
He has worked for several newspapers and magazines for more than twenty years, and has been editor-in-chief of culture for Calle 20, Público, El Confidencial and El Español. He has written and produced two sound documentaries for the Sonora platform: No pintas nada (2021) and Tita (2022).
In 2014 he won the José Luis Gutiérrez Cultural Journalism Award for his report “Académicos insumisos”. The jury, composed of veteran journalism professionals, highlighted his “innovative and critical way of understanding cultural journalism, always based on research and the work of sources and obstinate in highlighting the contradictions and paradoxes of our time” and noted that “Peio H. Riaño also represents a new generation of cultural journalists who are renewing the practice of the profession and demonstrating that – in times of multiple crisis: of formats, of content, of paradigm – quality cultural information is still possible”.
