M Í A de CASTELLARNAU

Mia de Castellarnau's work is an introspective scan that portrays the emotional imprint that the economy, politics, and technology has on everyday life, a premonitory look that captures the moment: "I look at social issues through an emotional lens, from what I feel in my skin as I live through my own circumstances”.

She studied painting at the Escola d'Art d'Olot, the Llotja de Barcelona and the Sorbonne in Paris. In 1999 she moved to New York to experience the artistic trends at the turn of the millennium.

Subsequently, in her studio in Rosas, Girona, she concentrated on large formats. She has exhibited in international galleries and is has pieces in private collections in Europe, Asia, and Australia. Since 2012 she works for collectors on commission, with an intimate perspective of the artist-patron relationship, guided by a principle of "No Business": art for art's sake and value in loving art. It is from that same angle that she co-founded the Association “Foster an Artist”. She has made more than 900 pieces throughout her career, among them the series "Individual Multitude", "Fashion Victims", "Codified" and the "Conceptual" stage in which, "after learning to read", the letters go from being signs to synthesizing powerful concepts. This is her most intimate territory, from which she is currently developing "Killing dead time" and "You can’t eat art".

Her art evolves towards the conceptualization of the feat of being a woman today, deals with the feminine without a label, consumerism, social distance, and cries out for the re-establishment of essential values in a plastic and globalized world. It is imbued with both the frustration of pursuing something that is almost impossible and the luminous drive of achieving it.  At the crossroads there is pain and above all a Strongly Feminine woman: contemporary, maternal, professional, sensual".

From the technical point of view, with each one of her pieces, Mía answers a trigger question, omnipresent in her career: will the pictorial format survive?

And she does it with genius, from the conviction that the work emerges from the ephemeral, from a widely contemporary digital snapshot, which she translates into a classical, almost ancestral format, recovering the polychromatic treatment of the medieval altarpiece, to turn the instant into a singular philosophical concept that leaves a scar on the wall of history.

Mía outlines the work meticulously, weaving in cotton or metallic wire, or by inserting a silk-screen printing technique, always finishing with oil to highlight with satin quality the permanent actuality of the final composition.

Mía de Castellarnau's conceptual painting is situated in the overlap between the ephemeral plastic texture of the digital medium, through which she captures the contemporary history and the more traditional painting techniques from the 10th to the 14th century - art history. With this, she demonstrates the possible and necessary coexistence of both worlds.

A "pictorial Matrix" that prints on the matter the digital reality. Her work is a vertical, deep, and critical look at modern-day society, evolved from expressionism to a pure existentialist concept, influenced by passion and conviction, by Street Art, Religious Art (which is in her blood), Warhol, Basquiat, and Gustav Klimt, Japanese Art, and her relationship with the world of graphic design, interior design and printing.

Mia de Castellarnau's work is an introspective scan depicting the emotional impact of economics, politics, and technology on everyday life, a predictable gaze that captures the moment: "I look at social issues through an emotional lens, through what I feel on my skin as I experience my own circumstances."

She studied painting at the Escola d'Art d'Olot, at the Llotja de Barcelona and at the Sorbonne in Paris. In 1999 she moved to New York to experience the artistic trends of the turn of the millennium.
She then focused on large formats in her studio in Rosas, Girona. She has exhibited in international galleries and her works are in private collections in Europe, Asia, and Australia. Since 2012 she has been working for collectors on commission, with an intimate perspective of the artist-patron relationship, guided by a principle of "no business": art for art's sake and value in the love of art. It is also from this perspective that she co-founded the Foster an Artist Association. Throughout her career, she has created more than 900 works, including the series "Individual Multitude", "Fashion Victims", "Codified" and the "Conceptual" stage, in which "after learning to read" the letters of characters become powerful concepts. This is her most intimate territory, from which she is currently developing "Killing dead time" and "You cannot eat art".