Celia Mora

Celia Mora is a Spanish painter living and practicing painting in London. She completed her studies in Fine Arts at the Complutense University of Madrid (2013), where she was trained in classical painting, and participated in various courses, scholarships, and group exhibitions. She was awarded an Erasmus Scholarship to study at the University of Arts London (2017), establishing her residence in the UK. She finished her studies in 2018, receiving an award on graduation. After this period, she continued developing a figurative painting practice, focusing on intimacy through the representation of the body. Her works are held in private collections, including The Four Seasons Hotel, in Madrid. She was awarded the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation grant to pursue her studies at RCA in 2022.

I am attracted by the depiction of the human figure. I want to achieve a sense of presence and self-awareness in my figures. Currently, I use my partner as a subject. I play with his image exploring our dynamic through performative poses - raw and playful - where the historical roles as men and women, the painter and his muse, are inverted. I take advantage of our mutual trust to interfere, manipulate and control my choices in the display of his body.

One might simplify this by saying: men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at. This determines not only most relations between men and women but also the relation of a woman to themselves. (…) she turns herself into an object – and most particularly an object of vision: a sight.

John Berger

By portraying my male partner naked, I secretly feel I am somehow overcoming my own behavioural boundaries as a woman. He becomes vulnerable in front of me, trusting the control of the exhibition of his body on my decisions and commands as a painter.