Bárbara Alegre

Bárbara Alegre (b. 1976) is a Spanish visual artist living and working between Barcelona and London. She attended the Llotja Escola d'Arts i Oficis (School of Arts & Crafts) in Barcelona followed by a Foundation course and a BA in Painting (2003) at Chelsea College of Art and Design. She recently returned to London in 2023 to complete her MA in Painting at the RCA.

Her work has been exhibited in London, Paris, Barcelona, Madrid, and China. Notable solo exhibitions include 'Dancing in the Sky, Waiting for the Sunset', her UK debut at IONE & MANN in London (2022) and 'A Matter of Time' in her native Barcelona with Alzueta Gallery (2018).

I am attentive to ‘life forming questions’ which are probably accompanied by loneliness. Questions on time, memory and expiration; on the search of the origin, genealogy, identity and the transmission of values.

My practice arises from personal experiences in order to talk about the ‘Other’. An investigation into universal questions concerning being human and the entangled relation between the physical and the psychological across the individual and the collective.

My work supports the idea of art being a ‘shelter’ or ‘safe place’, somewhere to return and reflect, where quietness, intimacy, contemplation and delicacy aim to bring protection and freedom; a motherly act of care and embrace.

Beacon – Oil on canvas - 80 x 80 cm

Return to Sender – Oil on canvas - 80 x 80 cm

Fight, Flight, Freeze – Oil on canvas - 80 x 80 cm

Last Lesson

An intimate body of work created over two years following the loss of my parents.

I started painting with the make-up and brushes my mother left behind as an attempt to keep her close and a way to process the unassimilable void. Make-up became the transitional object that helps the child who is separated from the mother when she is not present.

Gradually the practice evolved into a symbolic exploration of what ‘makes-up’ who we are, our beliefs, and the links to the world around us. Following a path through grief, love, acceptance and gratitude, the work becomes a celebration of life.

Photography by Matt Spour | Courtesy of Ione & Mann

Last Lesson – Make-up and oil on paper - 57 x 77 cm

Her – Make-up and oil on paper - 29 x 21 cm each

Healers – Make-up and oil on paper - 29 x 21 cm each

Continuous Traveller and Dancing in the Sky, Waiting for the Sunset – Make-up and oil on canvas - 30 x 40 cm each

Core – Make-up and oil on paper - 29 x 21 cm each

Tide – Make-up and oil on paper - 77 x 57 cm

Commitment – Make-up and oil on paper - 77 x 57 cm

Star of Bethlehem – Make-up and oil on paper - 77 x 57 cm

Spiritual Medium – Make-up and oil on canvas - 50 x 70 cm

Acabarme – Make-up and oil on paper - 77 x 57 cm

Garden – Make-up and oil on canvas - 122 x 90 cm

Medium:

Make-up and oil on paper / canvas

acceptance figurative gratitude grief love make-up mothers painting psychoanalysis transitional-object trauma

Screening of 'Last Lesson' at Piccadilly Lights during Gallery Weekend 2022. Curated selection by Julia Peyton Jones. Photo by Will Amlot- Courtesy of London Gallery Weekend

A Body for Empathy

The practice explores the interaction between bodily senses and thoughts around the intangible aspect of fraternity and empathy. Serendipity plays a role in their conceptualisation due to the intangible aspect of the subject matter. I am interested in the agency of folds, pleats and wrinkles on matter and the perception of touch through sight.

The work is carried out on different types of surfaces for oil based mediums and are displayed linearly as a group of related works.The varying surfaces and frames suggest the capacity to place oneself in another’s position.