Archives: Talents

Max Hierro, born in Paris, embodies a versatile artist with over 12 years of experience in organizing cultural events. By day, he specializes in artistic metal welding, crafting original and aesthetic creations. This artistic duality between metallurgy and electronic music defines the unique creative imprint of Maxime Hierro.

She lives in Berlin and works as a costume installation designer. Human hair was her first material for sculpture and installation while working as a hairdresser. In addition to obtaining a degree in Economics, she studied Acting (Vasilis Diamantopoulos and Akis Davis Theatre Schools), Costume Design and Scenography (Micro Polytechneio), Art History (Spanish Spoudastirio), and the History of Black-and-White Photography (PhotoCircle).

She has participated as a costume designer and actress in various shows and performances, and has lectured at the Little University on recyclable materials for clothing making. Her mixed-media work consists of handcrafted techniques using broken objects, toys, dolls, plastic and paper waste, threads, textiles and wires, combined with music, text, and video.

She restructures and composes with respect for the environment. She enjoys combining objects and fabrics, giving them new life and transforming them into art.

This 61-year-old artist lives and develops his creative work in Catalonia. Although his professional career has been focused on Information Technologies, from a young age he has maintained a constant connection with drawing and sculpture, training both in private academies and at the School of Applied Arts and Artistic Crafts of Tàrrega.

His work stems from a need for expression and an innate curiosity that has led him to dismantle all kinds of objects in order to understand their inner workings. This inquisitiveness drove him to create his first Interpretations: sculptures born from dismantled machine parts, reassembled according to aesthetic criteria, always keeping the original pieces and using authentic screws and springs to join them.

Currently, his work focuses on the assemblage of recycled and everyday elements—such as butane cylinders, golf clubs or frying pans—transforming them into semi-realistic sculptures. Wood, clay and assemblage remain his main artistic languages, through which he explores new creative paths based on reuse and transformation.

Artur Bordalo, also known as Bordalo II (pronounced Bordalo Segundo), studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Lisbon for eight years, where he discovered sculpture, ceramics, and experimented with various materials. His passion for painting dates back to his childhood, when he spent endless hours watching his grandfather paint in his studio, as well as tagging in Lisbon’s graffiti underground. Deeply influenced by his grandfather, Artur Bordalo began painting walls on the streets at the age of 11. Later, he chose the artist name Bordalo II as a tribute to his grandfather, Artur Real Bordalo (1925–2017), to honor him and highlight his artistic legacy. Public space would become the chosen stage for his explorations of color and scale, and the platform where he develops his artistic work, which today focuses on questioning the materialistic and greedy society of which he is (also) a part.

Worldwide known for using street trash to create impressive animal sculptures warning people about pollution and endangered species, his works are considered Trash-Art. The Big Trash Animals, large animal sculptures made from plastic waste, have spread across the world since 2012. Today, he also works on smaller formats with the Small Trash Animals. These serve as a reminder of the overproduction and overconsumption of goods, which leads to the continuous production of garbage and, consequently, the destruction of the planet. Bordalo II’s main goal is to raise awareness about how much waste is produced by humans and how we can stop causing so much harm to the Earth.

Ricardo Moraga is a Chilean sculptor based in Barcelona for over twenty years. In his three-dimensional work, he uses recycled materials such as wood, old books, sheet metal, and rusted metal objects. This use of decaying materials is no coincidence: oxidation becomes a central element of his artistic language, symbolising the passage of time and the inevitable decay that affects all things and living beings.

His sculptures occupy space with a poetic and material presence, blending memory, transformation, and ecological awareness. Through the reuse of discarded objects, Moraga invites us to reflect on the beauty of imperfection and the value of things that seem to have reached the end of their cycle.

What initially motivates Felip Gaig to create is that he enjoys himself in the studio. However, suddenly, Drap-Art’s proposal makes him reflect: “In addition to having fun, I have the opportunity to contribute, even if it’s just a small grain of sand, to raise awareness among an audience disillusioned with the powers, which are almost always driven by interests. There’s nothing more to say about that… persisting is the only option we have left. I keep working.”

Mercè Gifré’s medium of expression is engraving, with which she creates prints full of simplicity and serenity, as well as very internal emotions represented with discreet colors and subtle shapes.
To create these engravings, she uses matrices made from Tetra Brik containers and water-based inks, taking advantage of waste materials and contributing to sustainability.

The work of Fanni Kopacsi reflects on human behavior, sociocultural issues, and the ecological crisis, raising questions from a critical standpoint.
She has expanded beyond the boundaries of traditional media, incorporating a wide range of materials.

“My works are an examination of the modern human being, their behaviors and actions, and the problems they create. I use waste with the aim of pointing out the concerning proliferation of our detachment from spiritual values, which generates environmental and social problems.”

Artistic creation is a vital necessity for GiseBe. As an artist, she seeks to address identity questions, dealing with what is known or what has just been discovered and/or experienced. Through artistic expression, she translates into an individual language what emerges from a general context, an idiosyncrasy, or a culture in which verbs like identify, claim, exchange, and highlight can be included.

The artistic path of NaturAnto and her journey in this world cannot exist without each other. They intertwine and strengthen their bond through nature, which fills everything.
Nature creates, and Antonela creates with it. Since she was a child, she has lived without a fixed “homeland,” feeling nature as her true home.
From the feeling of disconnection between societies and nature, the artist creates a union between the viewer and nature.

Elias Abraham – Tamdrum

Elias Abraham has always loved percussion. That’s why, 10 years ago, when the opportunity arose, he decided to create his own version of a Hang, a musical instrument invented by Felix Rohner and Sabina Schärer in Switzerland, which was inspired by Caribbean steeldrums and at that time cost over 2000€.

He manufactures and sells TAMdrums – the name he has given to his instruments – created from recycling old gas cylinders that he collects from scrap yards.

For Núria Perez, creating is a necessity. Trying new materials is a form of expression to find light and atmospheres. She enjoys facing the challenge of working with recycled materials that guide her towards a direction. All of them have beauty and speak to her of a world for which they were not created. They enter, thus, the realm of imagination, where everything takes on a new meaning. A world of protest.

A self-taught artist, in an eternal quest to turn industrial waste into functional and aesthetic artwork.

“I’m very interested in contributing creative ideas and solutions to the world. Those waste materials that, as an individual, one cannot make disappear, I transform them into useful and beautiful things.”

Bella was born in a small Russian city in the Tver region, where she seemed destined to be just another cog in society. Through yoga, she saw the beauty of the world and discovered her passion for art: she began creating. She transmits her peace and energy to counteract violence, anxiety, and the lack of love in the world.

She reuses materials to create unique pieces that stem from her experiences and emotions: diaries, bags, drawing papers… and transforms them into a tree trunk. The form changes, but existence endures.

He defines his work as “Arts and Crafts,” a tribute to craftsmanship, but from a more contemporary perspective, incorporating recycling and the reuse of existing materials, thus playing with the memory and forms that they bring to us.

TUCHO

He began his higher education studies at the Faculty of Architecture in Montevideo and obtained his degree in architecture from the Higher Technical School of Architecture in Barcelona. Since its foundation in 2004, he has been part of the creative space TALLER D’IDEES. He has participated on several occasions, both individually and collectively, in exhibitions during the Open Studio Days in the creators’ workshops of the Old Town of Barcelona: TALLERS OBERTS, organized by the AFAD. Throughout his career, he has explored a variety of creative methods, from painting to animation, and finally sculpture. Living in Barcelona, the sea is a recurring theme in his artistic reflection, and he remains active in exhibition participation. Tucho has been involved with Drap-Art since 2016, in Barcelona, Sitges, and Montevideo, and will return to Barcelona in March 2023 with his exhibition ‘Los Barcos de Tucho’. Ships have been the central theme of his practice since 2014.

THE SHIPS OF TUCHO

“Although the ships are the protagonists, my works are not naval modeling projects. I do not copy a model; I create a fiction. Although the base material is wood, these are not carpentry works. I start from waste materials from carpentry shops or those collected from the street. Although they represent ships, none of them would sail. After all, the theme serves as a pretext to compose with the elements of a maritime language that unifies them: bows, anchors, sails, masts, propellers, chimneys…”

Vidal has training in Fine Arts and Graphic Arts. He has participated in multiple collective exhibitions, projects, and international residencies. He received two scholarships from the Joan Miró Foundation in Mallorca. Among his most recent solo exhibitions, we can highlight: Antonia Puyó Gallery, Zaragoza; Schillerpalais Neukölln, Berlin; Casal Solleric, Palma de Mallorca; Hilvaria Studios Foundation in Hilvarenbeek, Netherlands; La Misericordia Exhibition Space of the Council of Mallorca; Andratx Art Centre; Espai Mallorca, Barcelona; Museu de Porreres, Mallorca; Dato Exhibition Hall with a Montehermoso grant from the municipality of Vitoria-Gasteiz; Candyland Gallery, Stockholm.

Our Artist of the Month for May and June 2023 takes this opportunity to present a selection of collages and assemblage works. More than a hundred hand-made collages grouped into series or artist books. The great universal themes mark these series of works: the ensaïmada (pastry), holidays, mosquitoes, parties, sex, football, difficult relationships, marriage, infidelity, electricity, golf, abuse, the housing bubble, fitness, swimwear, lies, monarchy, diets, illness, and death, among others. In short, it portrays a society seriously threatened, with bad omens for a stressed and spoiled people. Dreams are shattered, and plans twist in paradise.

Laura Marte, artist and researcher, lives and works in Mallorca. As an artist, she activates working processes that question the imaginaries that shape normality, from visual, political, or sensitive places. Her projects are structured through collaborative practices, in multiple formats, and with a gender perspective.

Within this framework, she assumes a responsibility for the place and moment in which she inhabits, the foundation of her creative processes.

Anna Ametller holds a degree in Fine Arts (UB) with a specialization in drawing. She began working in sculpture with the sculptor Jaime de Córdoba Benedicto, collaborating on the execution of a public monument. When she settled in Formentera, she started developing work with marine debris and found objects. Often, these objects recreate the sea and the beings that inhabit it. Her works play with the language of drawing and sculpture.

Juan Carlos Beneyto lives in Barcelona, the city where he graduated in Fine Arts from the University of Barcelona and where he has developed his artistic career.
He considers himself a versatile artist, as his art manifests in different mediums of expression: painting, sculpture, illustration, comics, etc., combining them with elements from the natural world, such as stones and wood, to create new works.
He has exhibited in Spain (La Caixa Eivissa, Galería Esther Montoriol, Espai Artsider, Art Estudi La Farmàcia, Flamicell Art Contemporani), Germany (DIAG – Germano-Iber-American Society, Frankfurt), and the USA (Gallery Chez Shaw, Los Angeles, and Drapart Pittsburgh).

Batista holds a degree in Fine Arts. His work moves between surrealism, conceptualism, and politics, with a strong focus on ecology and a heavy dose of dark humor. He works in sculpture, installation, and photography. Among his recent solo exhibitions, highlights include Carn Trista at Casal Solleric, Temps és que sigui temps at N2 Galeria, and La Trinxera Errant at CIC El Almacén in Lanzarote. His solo project Realitat gairebé fum was held at the Centro de Arte La Regenta in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Juan Ismael in Fuerteventura, and TEA (Tenerife Espacio de las Artes).

Joaquim Riera aka Recuperart (Barcelona, 1953)

This 69-year-old artist lives and has his studio in Barcelona. After a professional life dedicated to graphic design, in 2012 he discovered recycling materials to create art. He began manipulating and transforming cardboard, egg cartons, plastics, cans, Tetra Brik containers, printed circuits, wood, and metals to create works of art, extending their lifespan and making the world more sustainable.

The main foundation of his sculptures is the assembly of metals and woods that have become obsolete over time; woods rescued from nature itself are the source of inspiration for all of his works. The aim of his art is to extend the life of everything that has ceased to be useful. He refers to his entire body of work as Recuperart.

He has held exhibitions in civic centers in Barcelona, Sala Delger in Caldes de Montbui, Espai Ronda Barcelona, Madrid, and Valencia, as well as in Bordeaux Périgueux. He has participated in exhibitions with the Spanish Film Association from 2017 to 2022. He won the First Prize in the Sota la Mirada de Josep Dt. Subirach contest at Espai NauArt, and took part in the Ments Inquietes collective exhibition at Galeria Ra del Rei (Madrid), Artist360 Fair Madrid, among others.

“I consider myself a versatile artist, and the reason that led me to create art with recycled materials is my concern for the environment and overexploitation. We produce more than we can consume, and everything that is thrown away can be transformed into art.”

González needs to create, and he does it with his hands, starting from nothing. From discarded objects, he seeks to express the charm of simplicity. Instead of hiding the imperfections of materials, his lights celebrate resilience and adaptation. He advocates for a beauty that arises from the incomplete, the humble, or the “defective,” emphasizing the idea of the passage of time as something natural and, in its own way, beautiful.

This painting constitutes a dialogue between philosopher Ricardo Pinilla and the artist, centered around a radical reflection on how we perceive and relate thought and art. It starts from phrases by the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche and the work The Scream by Edvard Munch. The piece takes a classic work as its starting point, reconstructing it in a similar way to how Archimboldo created his portraits using fruits and vegetables. The work represents a total recycling: created on a recycled surface, painted with colors obtained from leftover paint, and with characters built from waste materials.

In 2000, she began her ceramics training at the Ixió School in Mataró, which later became the Museum of Water Jug School in Argentona, where she currently works as a resident artist and is a member of the research and waste recycling group. Starting in 2005, she began participating in craft fairs, and in 2018 she introduced a new line of work, focused on waste recovery, creating small unique and functional works of art from recycled furniture, recovered old objects, and clothing. She participates in sustainable fairs and projects, including the Fira de la Terra (2018), Drap-Art Market at Plaça Reial (2019), the traveling exhibition of the ceramic waste recycling research group at the Barcelona Ceramists Association, the Museum of the Water Jug in Argentona (2009), and Artesania Catalunya, as well as various collective exhibitions like Nadie es ilegal (Nau Art, 2018).

Paulina Bielecka holds a degree in Art History from the University of Warsaw and the Kraków School of Art and Design. Driven by an indestructible passion for personal development, she embarked on a postgraduate course in design trends. She worked for Nelly Rodi in Paris, a strategic consulting agency specializing in the creative industry. As a sustainable artist, her journey began 8 years ago with a profound goal: to give new life to objects that have lost their original purpose. With her creative vision, she ingeniously reused used car parts and wood, effectively reducing waste and creating exquisite and practical designs. This is how the project Rec.on was born, an artistic and ecological endeavor that quickly gained recognition for its incomparable and captivating designs. Awarded numerous prizes in Poland and across Europe, the REC.ON brand is a testament to her exceptional talent.
Paulina Bielecka and Bartek Bielecki, her husband, a skilled craftsman and engineer, and an invaluable collaborator, have lived in Spain for five years; here, they continue creating their extraordinary works, establishing not only a studio but also a residence that connects and supports other artists.
Paulina is an artist motivated to transform waste into unique designs. Her works are not only aesthetically pleasing and functional but also environmentally friendly, aiming for zero waste. She seeks to support responsible production and consumption by bringing together upcycling and recycling artists from around the world. Her work is a manifesto for a sustainable future and inspires others to take green actions.

Miller creates assemblages from recycled linoleum, using only the found surface to recreate his themes, without added paint. His images range from bucolic landscapes to surreal pieces, fiercely political, often based on iconic images from the news and pop culture that have fed the collective memory of our society. His unexpected use of familiar patterns draws on the nostalgic qualities of his medium, conveying a sense of personal history and rediscovery in each piece. Among Miller’s commissioned works are two album covers for posthumous Frank Zappa records and the 2012 Woodstock Film Festival poster. His work has been exhibited in London, Spain, Australia, and the USA, including a solo exhibition at the cafeteria of the American Visionary Art Museum. He has been featured in numerous magazines and newspapers, including the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Chicago Tribune, and is included in various books on recycled art, such as Found Object Art 2 and ReTrash.

Molins has a degree in Fine Arts from the University of Barcelona and is currently doing doctoral studies. He is a multidisciplinary artist, with a restless spirit and a strong connection with nature. With an extensive exhibition career, various mentions and awards, among which we would like to highlight the recognition granted in 2016 by the Association of Art Critics of Aragon as the best Aragonese artist under 35 years of age. 

His work is in numerous public and private collections, such as Catharsis, a monumental work carried out in the Parque Grande José Antonio Labordeta in Saragossa.

He has also published two books of poetry, La corteza del corazón (Editorial Círculo Rojo, 2020) and Con el corazón en la mano (Aliar Ediciones, 2023). 

If you want to discover the origins and essence of this artist’s work, you only have to watch his exciting video My grandfather is an olive tree on YouTube.

After spending over a decade in Turin (Italy), he now resides in Barcelona (Spain). Brostean holds a BFA in Graphic Design and an MFA in Illustration from the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Novi Sad.

Brostean is a multidisciplinary visual artist with over 15 years of experience working with both traditional and digital media. His bold and colorful style, often described as “contemporary new figuration,” is distinctive for its use of bold and unexpected compositions, a daring color palette, and unique, surprising imagery. In his personal work, he has been strongly inspired by all aspects of human nature: exploration of the subconscious, emotional states, dreams, both real and surreal. Brostean is a master at deconstructing obvious reality to reconstruct it anew. He has developed a technique and style that is personal and very unique, the result of a perpetual journey, constant search for identity, and complexity of meanings.

In the field of applied art, Brostean has specialized in editorial and fashion illustration, applying his well-known playful mixed-media technique primarily to magazines and book illustrations, often experimenting with collage, using both traditional and digital tools. Brostean has always strived for powerful and original solutions for creative clients, never shying away from pushing boundaries, exploring a bold and surprising aesthetic across all platforms. His widely recognizable style has established him as one of the emerging contemporary artists appreciated by select international clients such as Armani Exchange, The Washington Post, Il Corriere Della Sera, Bicycle USA, and Kabinet Brewery, among many others.

His work has been published in numerous books, magazines, and publications worldwide. Since 2006, he has exhibited his work in a variety of exhibitions, ranging from solo shows to group exhibitions across Europe (Italy, Germany, Portugal, Spain, and the United Kingdom), as well as the Middle East and the United States.

As the granddaughter of a well-known artist in the Lower Rhine region, she was born with creativity and technical skill. As a child, she spent a lot of time with her grandparents. Weaving and painting with her grandfather Helmut, and cooking with her grandmother Anni, were the best pastimes in those days.
As she grew older, her interests shifted towards technology, and she chose to pursue technical training. For a long time, broken machines that emitted whistles and blinked were her passion, but over time her perspective changed, and she began developing creative projects. During a difficult time in her life, she discovered forging. Here, she could develop her full potential, both creative and technical.
Nicolas spends time in Formentera, where he met Sol Courreges, who invited him to participate in some of her projects, such as Stop Global Warming (2021) and STOP! The Last of Its Kind (2022), both of which were exhibited at the Centre Tur Gabrielet in Formentera.
The Elephant was created for this last exhibition.

Miquel Galceran (Terrassa, 1988) is a double bassist, composer, and educator. He uses music to evoke landscapes and transform them through improvisation. Quadern de viatge is his most personal project, also involving Dani Comas and Ramon Prats. He has worked with Benet Palet Trio, Moviment d’Insurrecció Sonora, Claes Magnet Trio, Quicu Samsó, Jordi Gardeñas, Josep Mª Merseguer, David Mengual, Iannis Obiols, Jonas Timm, and other renowned musicians.

He has participated in various jazz, pop, and experimental music festivals in Catalonia. His discography includes collaborations in works such as Tout ce qui reste (2019), Sad tunes (2018), Koselig (2018), Amb cara i ulls (2016), Incert (2014), among others. He graduated in Fine Arts from the University of Barcelona (2012) and earned a degree in Double Bass Jazz at the Liceu Conservatory (2019). He is currently a teacher of electric bass and double bass at the Musical Space of Terrassa and the Municipal School of Bellpuig.

He has lived and worked in Barcelona since 1990. Fernando Alday is a genius of collage, and the base of his creations are pages from old notebooks, old account books, or spines of books that he finds in antique shops.

His works, elegant and original, are filled with poetry.

Born in Castelló de la Plana in 1965, he has been based in Barcelona for 25 years.

Joan Peris is a visual artist who works and combines various disciplines: painting, digital art, and sculpture.

His work is inspired by the fusion of different elements and experimentation with various materials, resulting in a very material-based work full of contrasts.

During the 1980s and 1990s, he studied graphic design, photography, and ceramics. Afterward, he worked for eleven years as a ceramic designer. In the mid-1990s, he became interested in painting and opened his first studio in Barcelona. There, he began exhibiting in various galleries and international fairs.

In the early 2000s, he regained his interest in photography and began his digital work, based on the fusion of images that merge photography and painting.

Currently, he collaborates with various galleries that showcase his works primarily in Barcelona, Girona, Mallorca, Belgium, and the Netherlands.

Sellarès began painting when he was in primary school. He studied music (solfeggio, piano, and guitar) and art at the School of Applied Arts in Terrassa, which was then part of La Llotja. He is a member of the Cultural Association Friends of the Arts and the Terrassa Chess Club.

He leaned more toward practice than studies, and instead of entering the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Barcelona, after passing the entrance exams, he formed the experimental music group Belmondo and decided to travel to New York.

Throughout his career, he has encountered artists who have contributed to his development, both personally and artistically, such as Eloi Rocamora, Antoni Padrós, Richard Hamilton, Francesca Llopis, Nazario, Perico Pastor, Eugeni Bonet, Toni Riera, Carlos Pazos, among others.

He has exhibited at Sala Parés, the A Punt Gallery in Badalona, the H₂O Gallery, and the Chez Xefo Art Gallery, among others. He has also exhibited in museums such as the Joan Miró Foundation, the Museum of Badalona, and the Soler Palet Municipal Hall in Terrassa. Additionally, the Sabadell Bank Foundation has purchased several of his works.

Fran Lucas Simón studied Fine Arts at the Polytechnic University of Valencia and has been residing on the island of Formentera for over 13 years.

The visual language he has been developing is a union of different elements that play with each other within each piece.

He has evolved from a more painting-oriented approach to a rather particular way of constructing images.

His creative process starts with fieldwork, collecting elements through walks in open spaces, followed by workshop work where he uses various painting techniques, such as watercolor painting on paper, which is then cut and assembled with elements collected during fieldwork, found objects, repurposed materials, or natural elements that he dries and treats.

He seeks the poetry in found elements, with an interest in the textures of old woods, stained by use, and rusted metals on which he paints time. He proposes different visual and referential elements.

Matilla studied at the School of Fine Arts of San Eloy in Salamanca and holds a degree in Art History from USAL. From 1974 to 1976, she attended the cycles of applied psychology and pedagogy at the Pontifical University of Salamanca.

She came into contact with and learned from renowned artists during her training: Chillida, Jerónimo Prieto, Manuel Manzanaro, Félix Felmart, and Marc Tara Tessier. She has held numerous solo and group exhibitions, both national and international.

In the late seventies, she first settled in Alicante and later in the Balearic Islands, where she met local artists. In 1986, she met the German photographer Reinald Wünsche, who became the father of her daughter, and she settled on the island, combining her personal work with teaching activities. She taught theater and flamenco for adults and gave painting classes for children as an extracurricular activity.

In addition to her teaching work, Teresa has contributed to civic engagement, being one of the founders of the Association of Neighbors of the Island of Formentera (AVIF), an entity with notable participation in various advocacy movements, and an active member of the Council of Entities, the Association of Artists of Formentera (ADAF), and a promoter of the Sant Ferran Artistic Market. This year, she was honored with the title of Adoptive Daughter of Formentera.

Alberto Gramegna is an architect and designer. He has collaborated with various architecture and interior design studios in Rome, Barcelona, Istanbul, and Zurich.

Throughout his professional journey, he focuses on environmental sustainability as an intrinsic component of the discipline itself. In his design project Ottolumi, his approach is reflected in the reuse of existing materials and objects.

Ottolumi is born from the reinterpretation of the traditional lampshade, stripping it of its exterior skin and highlighting the structural support of the lampshade itself. The original metal frame, now revealed, is formally reinterpreted with a network of cords that uncover new geometries already present in potential within the structure.

For the lamp bases, existing objects are used, which are reinterpreted to eventually become unique lamp supports. Thus, a brick worn by the sea, some billiard cues, or some bed legs are adapted to become lamp supports.

Born in Sant Feliu de Guíxols, Girona, in 1975, Nei Albertí Gascons is a sculptor whose work seeks to perpetuate and expand forms in space. His sculptures are characterized by linear simplicity and the use of open ellipses that trace paths toward infinity.

Albert Merino holds a degree in Fine Arts from the University of Barcelona and the Kunsthochschule Berlin Weißensee, where he specialized in video art. He later completed his postgraduate studies as a Meisterschüler under the tutelage of artist and professor Inge Mahn.

He has participated in numerous festivals, solo and group exhibitions, residencies, and has received various video art awards.

Merino creates through a hybrid language, constructing a broad imaginary with which he intervenes and transforms everyday life, often bordering on absurdity and irony.

Using different graphic resources, he questions the architecture of images and the ability to alter them with contemporary manipulation techniques.

Interested in deconstructing visual language, he has experimented with various forms of narration, ranging from non-narrative language to comedy or mockumentary, addressing themes from the condition of the individual in contemporary society to imaginaries of collapse or the political use of images and symbols.

Merino has been coming to Formentera for 20 years, and the work presented here is an ironic staging of small bathers enjoying “beaches” formed by the puddles of city drains and sewers, as if they were Caribbean paradise beaches.

This prompts reflection on the phenomenon of tourism, both in Formentera and other places, where people ignore the environmental degradation caused by their behavior and continue bathing in an increasingly polluted sea, unaware until the water runs out.

Sol Courreges graduated in Graphic Design and Fine Arts from the University of Buenos Aires. She worked in advertising agencies and design studios in Argentina and the United States, where she also obtained a master’s degree in Art. In 1999, she established her own studio, Ideaslocus, in Sitges. In 2009, she founded Artecrearte, with the idea of recycling discarded elements to create accessories, fashion items, and decorations, leaving a mark. She has participated in recycled art exhibitions such as Recicla Madrid (Caixaforum), Mercantic (Sitges), Lab Art (Asturias), Centre Grabrielet (Formentera), and Drap-Art (CCCB and Sala Perill in Barcelona, Instituto Cervantes in Beijing, Shanghai and Tokyo, Re:NEW Festival in Pittsburgh…).

Currently, she combines her creative work with the management of several gallery-stores in Formentera and artivism to reduce plastic pollution in nature, conducting workshops, editing books, organizing exhibitions, and encouraging people to consume less plastic and keep the beaches in her surroundings clean in general.

Through his work, he brings a critical and committed perspective to the relationship between the individual and their environment.

His photographs and videos establish a dialectical relationship between the private and the public, the personal and the political, the individual and the social; exploring the boundaries between these different realms and shedding light on the mechanisms that operate in our societies.

This is a reflection on the blurred traces of the constructed landscape, analyzing various social processes.

The landscape, intervened by architecture, hides revealing traces of the transformations that have occurred.

Thus, the landscape acts as an archive, as a palimpsest, as a memory to be updated in the present.

Just like the landscapes, the individuals who inscribe themselves in it also speak to us, also communicate with us; simply through their way of being-in-the-world and presenting themselves before it.

Therefore, following the principle of documentary photography by Walker Evans, the photographer must “accompany the model in their act of representation.”

Through his images, the individual reveals traits about themselves, their origins, and their present situation; about their history as a biography.

Nourathar is a studio formed by Marta Rupérez Molenveld (Madrid, 1977) and Caen Botto (Buenos Aires, 1970).

In their work, they explore the relationship between humans and technology through mixed-reality proposals that combine digital techniques with proto-cinematic artifacts.

Mecanisme del Present Perpetu presents an analogy between the “illusion of time” and the optical illusion contained in the piece.

Like other works by the duo, this piece is built from the encounter between the physical and the virtual.

In this way, it highlights the ability of technology to construct our conception of the world through the conditioning of perception. Caen Botto is an intermedia artist, musician, and researcher.

He graduated from USAL as a Music Therapist in 1992; he also studied Ethnomusicology (CMMF) and Electroacoustic Composition (UNQUI).

His activities range from research and teaching to technical and creative direction in artistic and corporate productions.

In 2000, he created Universomente, an independent laboratory for the research and production of experimental audiovisual techniques for interactive communication.

He has lived in Ibiza since 2013, where he co-founded the audiovisual creation studio Nourathar.

Marta Rupérez Molenveld is an independent manager, producer, and curator specializing in art and technology.

She received her Master’s in Visual Arts Administration from NYU in 2003 (Fulbright scholarship).

He studied Art History, Painting, and Printmaking Techniques at the National School of Fine Arts in Montevideo (now the University of Montevideo) until the military dictatorship closed the school.

In 1970, he moved to Spain and traveled through several European countries and North Africa.

In 1972, he discovered Ibiza, and in 1976, he traveled to Formentera for the first time, temporarily residing in El Pilar de la Mola, where he met artists like Toni Tur “Gabrielet,” Guillermo Berrier, and Gilbert Herreyns. He has been settled in Barcelona ever since, balancing his artistic pursuits with the restoration and trade of antiques, specializing in ethnological objects from Asia and Africa. In 2009, he returned to Formentera, where he has lived and worked ever since.

Hombrelópez, graphic designer, urban artist, cultural agitator, and lovable human being, has been living in Menorca for many years. He gets into trouble whenever he can, creating, designing, exhibiting, and organizing events, either for fun or for work, and in the best case, combining both.

Anita Burdon
Tomelloso, 1977
Instagram: @streetartesticfart

With a sculptural mindset, she combines artistic project management with her own work production. The decomposition of volume is the goal.

In her work, collage and sculpture merge. Passionate about the discourse of her work, she can be incendiary or put out fires.

At first, our bodies submerged in a fluid experienced a vertical rush upwards, equal to the weight of the fluid we displaced. In the end, our mass will be less than our equivalent volume in the fluid.

I think it was something like…
E = Pe V = pf g V

Thank you Ἀρχιμήδης ὁ Συρακόσιος

Isidre Mateu is a versatile artist who works in painting, collage, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, and jewelry.

He lives in the Gothic Quarter of Barcelona, where he actively participated in the advocacy of the El Borsí Platform for the neighborhood, which succeeded in recovering this building as a cultural infrastructure for the local community.

He studied at the Faculty of Fine Arts Sant Jordi, specializing in painting and printmaking, and obtained his degree equivalence in 2010.

He has worked as a professor of Graphic Arts, participated in numerous group exhibitions, held several solo exhibitions, and contributed to the organization of international shows, such as the exchange between Catalan and Japanese artists and the Marrakesh Art Show, organized by the Spanish Cultural Institute.

“Materializing the idea with a minimal number of formal elements and sometimes with the participation of found pieces and fragments has been an interesting exercise, always avoiding, when possible, the simple and easy solution.”

Originally trained in Architecture, the Iranian artist Boback discovered his creative calling in the world of sculpture.

In his metal sculptures and paintings made from bitumen, one can see his interest in natural materials and the use of space as raw material.

Guided by his personal experience, he creates works of art that express his internal struggle with memory and place.

His compositions express a powerful geometric language that incorporates both void and matter.

An inherent yearning for a sense of belonging and connection is evident in his public sculptures in Europe and the United States.

Whether working on a monumental stainless steel sculpture or an intimate painting with bitumen or watercolor, his focus is on compositional expressions using geometric exuberance as an expression of the world he sees around him.

Boback exhibits his work in galleries across Europe, the United States, and Mexico.

His monumental public sculptures can be seen around the world in places such as Paris (France), Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, and cities in California, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington.

In her adolescence, Indira began to take an interest in architecture and developed a deep passion for photography. Later, she obtained her degree and immersed herself in photography.

Since then, she has followed her passion for photography with explorations in other formats such as mixed media, installation, experimental video, and since 2015, metal weaving.

Her work has been exhibited internationally in both collective and solo presentations, including The de Young Museum, Root Division, Mission Cultural Center, San Francisco Symphony, in the United States, and at the National Council of Culture and the Arts, Pablo Neruda Museum House in Chile. She was invited to the VII Biennale of Art and Design in Spain and the Gallery of the Fontecchio International Airport in Italy.

“My work dwells in the relationship between social fabric and interaction, creating a conversation and narratives of stories to find new meaning.”

“Art gives me the freedom to explore my inner self by juxtaposing it with my external self.”

Shahin is an Iranian-born artist, based in Barcelona, who arrived in Spain four years ago.

She holds a degree in graphic design and a master’s in artistic research from Azad University of Art and Architecture in Tehran.

For 14 years, Shahin worked as a visual arts teacher in various schools in Tehran, and for three years, she taught art at the university.

She has held several exhibitions of painting, photography, and contemporary art.

Shahin has also worked as a photographer, video artist, painter, and graphic designer, for both the industry and the media and social networks, as well as portrait photography.

Currently, her art focuses on exploring Iranian motifs and several photography projects.

She believes that only through art can one’s internal feelings be expressed. And only art is limitless and free.

Lisa Rubin is a Hispanic-American artist currently residing in Barcelona.

She was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Her mother is from Valencia, Spain, and her father is from the Bronx, New York, of Jewish descent.

This multiplicity of identities has long influenced her work, and she considers herself a global citizen.

Lisa’s father, Dr. Edward Rubin, is a prominent environmental engineer, and his work to mitigate climate change, as well as the general values of her family, helped stimulate Lisa’s interest in creating sustainable art.

Working primarily with mixed media and collage, Lisa creates reflective and complex compositions inspired by the natural world and its cycles, as well as the contents of her noisy brain.

The human psyche, the secret life of plants, and mythology are themes that come into play, coming to life through a layering of images and found objects that she encounters by chance.

Working with mixed media and collage allows her the freedom to tackle many themes, but she also follows her belief that art should be made from everything.

Most of her materials are recycled, discarded, or found.

Her work is immensely symbolic, with each component having not just one, but many reasons for being there.

After living in cities such as Pittsburgh, New York, and Barcelona, Lisa longed for natural surroundings but was also drawn to the dynamic nature of urban life.

Her work explores and rethinks both land art and urban art traditions, questioning current trends.

Why does land art tend to be abstract rather than narrative? Have we seen enough spray paint in our cities?

Her recent artistic adventures include a group urban art show, Windows Art Circuit, shown at Poblenou Open Day in Barcelona, and a simultaneous group exhibition in Lisbon and Berlin, titled Sensing the City.

Before creating his own design studio, he studied at the EINA School of Design and the Massana School. As a teacher, he taught at Elisava, the University School of Design. He has been a member of the board of the Association of Professional Designers (ADP).

Alongside his professional work, he is involved in various interdisciplinary projects, including the creation of sculptures, blending static and dynamic objects, made from old iron finds and knick-knacks he collects in the rural environment. A selection of his works can be seen in his exhibitions across various locations in the country.

Karin Heinrich started her professional training as a piano technician, then studied design in Bern and Biel, obtaining a degree in industrial design from the Faculty of Design and Art at the University of Aarau. Since 2008, she has been creating her own objects and artistic installations in her workshop in Bern. Since 2012, she has combined her personal work with the direction and construction of sets for the Biena-Soloturn Theatre and the Zurich Opera. Since 2020, she has also worked for the Theater-Auditorium in Bern.

“I am interested in the experimental, playful, and humorous exploration of materials and simple, everyday objects. For me, this is as important and enjoyable as trying to perceive mental states. Between the material qualities and the mental characteristics, I often see states of similarity, which I place in context in my work. Currently, I am interested in ephemeral and often futile processes. I often work with ice. I am moved by the concentration and vulnerability that arises from predictable change. A careful and considerate approach to resources and living beings is a great personal concern of mine. This attitude is also reflected in my work.”

Moberly is a multidisciplinary artist based in Barcelona, primarily working in photography and sculpture. He documented the pandemic photographically, and he found it depressing to relive what he had photographed during the day once the images were downloaded. It was an endless stream of miserable masked people that became increasingly emotionally exhausting, so to counter this, he decided to have fun with the free creation of sculptures, some of which are shown here.

His sculptures have always been made from recycled aluminum, mostly collected from the street. He uses aluminum because he loves its look and can work with it at night, bending and shaping it by hand without making noise or disturbing the neighbors. Nowadays, he buys old aluminum pots and pans on Wallapop because many people are looking for scrap, and it’s hard to find. His motivation comes from a deep desire to create, which often arises after witnessing or seeing something that needs to be expressed. Above all, he wants to create beautiful work and have a good time doing it. He wants people to be able to touch it, ask questions, be moved and/or inspired by it, even be bothered… or simply learn something new, like what a pangolin is and why it’s endangered.

After graduating in Architecture in Istanbul, Rana Tarhangil traveled to Spain and settled in Barcelona. She worked as an architect for 17 years in several countries but felt that she had lost her creativity. She started painting, creating sculptures, and making crafts. Additionally, during the pandemic, she took a course in industrial waste management and began collecting waste, conducting recycling workshops, and exhibiting art created from recycled materials. Rana feels “indebted” to nature and wants to contribute to raising awareness among people, not only about recycling plastics but also about the urgent need to stop using them. Her goal is to create an emotional reaction in the viewer, linked to the contradiction between the initial attraction of the beauty of the artwork and the awareness message it conveys, and to make people reflect on environmental, social, and economic sustainability.

Alfredo Blasco Nuin holds a degree in Information and Communication Sciences, is a journalist, and an advertising designer. He has worked for 30 years as an executive in the communication and advertising field, both online and offline, including managing newspapers, advertising marketing, brand strategy design, advertising design, event organization, logo creation, branding, corporate communication, e-commerce management, social media, and blogs.

He also has professional expertise as a teacher in Vocational Training for Employment, and extensive experience in press, product, and studio photography. Throughout his creative phases, he has always focused on conceptual composition, combining and integrating visual elements behind a socially conscious aesthetic.

In recent years, he has applied his experience and knowledge to the creation of sculptures and designs based on the reuse, recycling of discarded materials, and found objects, preferably of industrial origin. He seeks to integrate his works into other interdisciplinary projects in search of collaborative spaces united by the concept of “second chances,” reuse, and the evocative and emotional potential that objects once useful to us always carry.

“Eloquence in literary expression; the communication and expression of ideas through all aesthetic channels are a source of interpersonal enrichment, collective awareness, and ethical commitment to the environment and the moment in which we live.”

Virgínia Rondeel is a Dutch fashion designer who lived for many years in Barcelona and is currently based in Berlin. After working for ten years in industrial fashion design, she decided to leave “fast fashion.” She began experimenting with recycled materials and participated in several exhibitions.

Currently, she gives lectures and classes on sustainable fashion design, in addition to creating her own clothing collections. All of her designs are unique pieces, made entirely by her.

Mondragón realitza un màster de Cinema i Noves Tecnologies en la Universitat de París (2000 a 2005), Motion Graphics en Hyper Island, Estocolm (2012 a 2013), Editor en Mitjana Institut, Estocolm (2016 a 2017), Change makers education i disseny d’experiències immersives (2020 a 2021).

Treballa com a editor i animador UR per a la televisió sueca. Ha participat en projectes educatius i socials, en projectes d’intercanvi entre Mèxic i Suècia i amb la Galeria Candyland d’Estocolm en la construcció i gestió de la seva galeria en Hammarby, ArtPort.

Les obres presentades a Drap-Art relacionen l’artesania i les tècniques digitals, representen la cultura popular del vídeo joc, però amb una tècnica artesanal antiga. Els vidres són reciclats igual que els ossos, recuperats de les escombraries amb la intenció de crear narracions visuals que integrin la simbologia actual de la nostra cultura digital, però amb aquesta aura religiosa que té el magnetisme de la llum dels vitralls antics de les esglésies, ara reemplaçades per les pantalles LED o els dispositius mòbils que il·luminen els nostres ulls.

Valentina Greene is the creator and designer of the textile upcycling brand Green-e. A professional photographer with studies in industrial design and makeup, she took her first steps in fashion in 2009 when she opened a small boutique selling clothing imported from Argentina, where she spent several seasons and attended various workshops related to art and photography.

In 2015, with the desire to create her own designs and develop her own language, she took a course in cutting and tailoring, a key tool for personal experimentation in the world of fashion. Enthusiastic about this new world to discover, she closed her boutique and focused on developing her first pieces. Passionate about vintage and second-hand clothing since her adolescence, she visited fairs and markets in search of original and quality pieces to reuse in her designs. This is how she began her journey in upcycling, and by the end of 2017, she created her own sustainable brand, “Green-E.”

“The motivation behind my work is to recover discarded pieces to give them new life and revalue them. Upcycling allows me not only to express my own aesthetic language but also to show the narrative of each reused piece. With my work, I aim to visualize and inform about new, less-polluting textile practices that align more with today’s times.”

Amadeu Flix Miguel began his career in the art world in 1972 in Munich, creating pyrography works in a self-taught manner. He held several exhibitions in southern Germany, and in 1976, he participated in the III European Biennial of Art in Immigration at the Palace of Congresses and Exhibitions in Madrid.

Upon returning to Catalonia and coinciding with his retirement, the environment and recycling motivated him to enter the world of upcycling, a task to which he currently dedicates his free time. At his home in Malgrat de Mar, he has an incredible warehouse full of various objects and old trinkets, which he collects because he enjoys giving new life to pieces, objects, and remnants of nature.

Ladislas Chachignot is a French artist based in Barcelona. After studying History, Art, and Visual Communication in Marseille, France, he began working directly as a digital artist and independent illustrator. He has spent over 10 years running his own studio, LadislasDesign. He specializes in “Pop Surrealism” and has an ecologist and biocentric vision that he defines as “Ecosurrealism.”

Concerned about the climate emergency, he uses his creative and artistic tools to center his work around a unique and imaginative vision of reconnection between humans and nature. In this way, he advocates for the need to preserve and care for the environment. He also aims to use this vision and his art to collaborate with people, brands, organizations, and projects to raise awareness and sensitize people about environmental protection.

In 2022, after more than 2 years of work, hand-in-hand with the NGO Pangea Seed Foundation, a very special project for Ladislas was published: the book Sea Change.

Alacalle is the design studio of Maria Molsosa Fabrés and Gustavo Germain Ariello, a Catalan designer and an Argentine craftsman who met while hanging from a trapeze and decided to build a family together, their first creative project on solid ground. During the early years of parenting, the Alacalle project was born, with the idea of communicating through creative actions with a clear environmental commitment.

Currently, they work exclusively with the recovery of materials. What initially was an anecdotal feature of their work has now become their starting point, their reason for being, and their way of working. To do this, they transform materials and objects, seeking new uses and utilities to extend their life cycle, and thus, turn them back into resources. With this approach, and through design and recovery, they create pieces of furniture, lighting, decorative objects, crafts, accessories, and even communication campaigns or artistic installations.

“Transforming objects, giving them new life, is a way of also transforming the world we live in and the way we relate to it. Changing our perspective helps us gain a different awareness, give another value to things, and change the way we produce and consume. We are certain that, through small individual actions, together we can achieve great collective change.”

“We are driven by the belief that there are other ways to live, produce, and consume. That change is not only possible but urgent and necessary to survive in this world. Our personal concerns, our social and environmental commitment, our values, and our awareness have led us to embark on this creative project based on sustainable and responsible design.”

Daniel Bornmann is an artist from Hamburg, Germany, who creates new values from “waste.” By reusing PET bottles, he constructs musical instruments called flairdrums, which, when pressurized, create a unique, exotic, and sustainable musical experience.

At the Drap-Art’22 festival, Daniel Bornmann conducted a workshop where he taught participants how to build their own flairdrum.

Since 1987, Jordi Prat Pons has held more than 60 solo exhibitions, participated in over 100 group shows, and exhibited at 30 international fairs. He has been working with the collage technique for 33 years. He mainly uses bottle labels, old posters, and flyers, which he recovers from the streets and uses based on their texture and color to create works that appear to be painted with a certain realism, thus not resembling conventional collages.

Over time, he has added objects such as bottle caps, tobacco packs, and cans to these collages that resemble paintings, moving closer to assemblage. He has recently started a new project of large-scale installations resembling Pixel Art murals made from discarded books, which are displayed during the Drap-Art Festival on Las Ramblas. According to him, he uses “culture to make culture.”

Ilaria Sansotta is a bookseller and visual artist. She is the founder of the second-hand bookstore LaDolceVita in Barcelona. Coming from the world of book restoration in Italy, she has always experimented with the creative possibilities of paper and related materials. She has participated in Art Libris 2021 and 2022 (Barcelona), Rocart 2021, the Art and Culture Festival (Peñíscola), Drap-Art’21 (Barcelona), the Artist Book Festival 2022, and the La Bóbila Cultural Center (Hospitalet).

Ilaria Sansotta’s works are an invitation to reflect on the delicate balance of Nature, which needs us to be preserved. At the same time, the use of the open book symbolizes the creative process, the birth, and development of ideas. The artwork she presents is like a flower inside a glass jar. The flower has been made by cutting a book: the leaves of the flower are formed by folding leather covers, and the petals of the flower are the same open pages of the book. By opening a book, a flower is born, a story, a life. The earth and its mineral nutrients are also present in the bottle, as well as the sun’s rays, which descend like filaments from the cork of the jar.

“Nature is the elemental force of the world, sacred and eternally creative, which generates and actively produces all things from itself.” — Alexander von Humboldt (Pioneer of ecological thought and one of the first to write about climate change).

Servera is a multidisciplinary visual artist, with a degree in technical architecture, based in Barcelona. He has held numerous solo and group exhibitions. He is the editor of three monographic volumes: Faroleres (Stonberg Editorial), Sabates nàufragues and Paisatges de l’ànima (Sa Nostra) and other publications. He has won various awards in photography, engraving, and painting, and is the founder of Biribotis, where he carries out artistic activities and creative workshops for children, young people, and adults in museums, events, and cultural centers. He has been working as a teacher at the TRAÇ school in Barcelona since 2013.

“I interpret the sea and its surroundings in their magnificence in a spontaneous, vital, and sometimes chaotic way. It also serves as a backdrop to give visibility to what is happening in our environment and to generate a reflection on the environmental effects it suffers due to the human footprint.”

With a background in Fine Arts, Fashion Design, Advertising Art, and Interior Design, Jana Álvarez moves beyond artistic labels, as everything is now multidisciplinary for her. For her, the idea and the material “choose” the technique, format, and form of expression.

She has extensive professional experience as a fashion designer for various brands, as a creative in advertising, a freelancer in illustration and painting, set design for film and TV productions, and interior design projects. Her work includes collaborations with brands such as Purificación García, Antonio Miró, Custo BCN, Bassat Ogilvy, Editorial Murdoch, Boca Films, Productora Zeppelin, TV3, Canal+ France, the 1992 Olympic Games, the National Ballet of Cuba, Hilton hotels, alternative theater, Médecins Sans Frontières, C.G.T., and more.

She has a broad track record in national and international exhibitions, both individual and collective, in locations such as Barcelona, Sitges, Santander, Madrid, Menorca, Málaga, Almería, Bilbao, León, Asturias, Valencia, Paris, Nantes, London, Rome, Berlin, Beijing, Tokyo, Uruguay, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, Santa Fe, among others. She has participated in Drap-Art since its inception in 1996 and continues to collaborate with the project.

Her artistic and personal motivation in everyday life is to reuse in order to achieve zero waste. She is critical of the unconscious and disconnected consumer society that leads us to natural, social, and economic extinction.

“This capitalism is unsustainable, leaving behind waste, disasters of all kinds, and ruins in its wake. There is hardly any material that is ‘clean’ or, by now, natural that does not have a negative impact on ecosystems. That’s why I reuse objects and materials of any composition and type rejected, to give them ‘a thousand lives,’ not just two, even if I have to recycle them to their total disintegration. From defeat to defeat until final victory. Change is possible.”

Ramiro Sobral lived much of his life in Tucumán, Argentina. In 2007, he moved to Barcelona, where in 2013 he opened his bicycle shop, El Ciclo, in the Gothic Quarter. It was there that the idea of creating a collection of lamps using leftover bicycle parts from his workshop began. Over the years, he has recycled thousands of bicycle parts.

With this project, which he named Bicicletas que van ver la luz (Bicycles that saw the light), he aims to recover, recycle, and reuse old and used bicycle parts to give them a new life. Gradually, he has created a collection of various types of lamps, made from parts such as spokes, brake discs, chains, etc. While no lamp is identical, the origin of their components is easily identifiable. In addition to the lamps, he has also started creating some furniture pieces, like the stools we are showcasing here.

Bruchstein, a self-taught artist, seeks to establish a close relationship with his subjects. The relationship begins with an invitation to the studio, followed by a brief interview to determine who fits best into the project. So far, he has invited dozens of people, with whom he has spent hours, if not days, cultivating closeness and intimacy until he gains their trust with him and the camera. At this point, he asks them to gradually reveal themselves, layer by layer, both physically and mentally, while he covers them with makeup as a mask: hiding on one hand and revealing and uncovering on the other.

During photo sessions, he takes hundreds of pictures in an attempt to capture the precise moment and expression that aligns with his vision. His goal is to bring out the internal emotions to the surface: body, face, gestures, and expression. Bruchstein uses lights and shadows to emphasize mood and emotions as he blurs the boundaries. Colors and layers of makeup are used as accessories to express the inner strength of his models and blur the line between the inner and outer.

Bruchstein’s characters interact with Art History, as well as contemporary androgynous figures. They have eroticism, but it is asexed. The photos are minimalist, yet full of color, contrast, and seduction. The subjects are often photographed with their eyes closed, trapped in their own imaginary world.

Ulrike Koeb lives and works in Vienna, Austria, as a food and still life photographer. After working as an assistant to renowned photographers, she took several master classes in photography in Maine and New Mexico, USA. These classes had a significant impact on her and gave her the push to dedicate herself to artistic photography. Among other things, she has done extensive research with black and white techniques, such as platinum-palladium prints, which she sometimes colors. Her sensitivity and passion for color and form are an integral part of her work. In addition to commercial book and magazine projects, her photographs have appeared in many other publications.

Her work has been shown in collective and solo exhibitions in, among others, Oman, England, South Korea, the Netherlands, Hungary, Finland, and more recently as part of the Image Festival in Amman, Jordan.

The project r e d u c e / r e u s e / r e c y c l e, to which the works displayed in Drap-Art belong, consists of seductive, sometimes irritating images made from food, found objects, and packaging materials, primarily plastic. She also uses decaying edible products. With these works, she aims to raise awareness about the “throwaway society” and the resulting massive environmental threat. Nature does not produce waste; it works in a circular cycle, which the regenerative model of the circular economy has adopted in order to reduce waste and emissions. Materials, electronic devices, and clothing that are already produced must be used, repaired, and passed on for as long as possible or shared. Our consumption behavior needs to change progressively, as soon as possible. Everyone needs to do their part for this to happen. We only have one planet, but we are acting as if we have several backups.

Modest Cuixart grew up in a family of doctors and pharmacists in a cultural environment. He began his medical studies to follow the family tradition but left after two years to pursue painting, his true calling.

Together with his cousin Antoni Tàpies, Cuixart met Joan Brossa, Joan Ponç, philosopher Arnau Puig, and Joan Tharrats, with whom he co-founded the magazine Dau al Set in 1948. Thanks to a scholarship from the French Institute, Modest traveled to Paris with Antoni Tàpies in December 1950. There, he met Picasso and Miró, attended the Sorbonne, and immersed himself in the “art autre” movement of Dubuffet and Fautrier.

In the late 1950s, Cuixart created his famous metallic drippings, which are part of his unique material-based informalism. Praised by the world’s most prestigious critics as a true innovator of informalism on an international scale, he won some of the most coveted awards: the Gold Medal at the prestigious Swiss Abstract Painting Prize and the Grand Prize for Painting at the 5th São Paulo Biennial, competing against figures like his admired Francis Bacon, Alberto Burri, Karel Appel, and Lucio Fontana.

This was a splendid period, during which his success multiplied, participating in major international events and exhibiting in the leading museums and galleries across numerous countries. High-profile collectors worldwide acquired his works. Critical articles from top critics were published in prestigious international magazines like Art Actuel International (Lausanne), Quadrum (Brussels), and Arts Magazine (New York), among many others. André Breton considered him when selecting a Spanish artist for the 1959 International Surrealist Exhibition E.R.O.S., alongside Marcel Duchamp, for the Daniel Cordier gallery.

In the early 1960s, Cuixart abandoned informalism, influenced by Bertold Brecht’s thinking, focusing on human experience and objects. Following his dramatic burnt dolls (Nameless Children), which symbolize the innocent victims of violence, he entered a phase of great originality, combining organic, sinister, and erotic traits. This period marked his success in New York, where he merged material-based informalism with graphic elements in ink and soft colors.

The work selected for the Drap-Art image this year, Post Salut (1963), comes from this period. According to Raquel Medina, PhD in Art History, ACCA-AICA critic, and independent curator:

“This piece reflects a moment when the artist felt that the informalism that had brought him so much success had become obsolete. New concerns about the human condition emerge in his work. These are the first pieces in which he incorporates objects and fragments (dolls, airplanes, shoes…) to reflect and denounce the tragedies of innocent victims in all wars. In fact, he evokes and exorcises one of his personal ghosts: the terrifying bombings of Barcelona that he experienced at the age of 13.”

Miguel Escobar holds degrees in Philology and Fine Arts from the Massana School of Art and Design in Barcelona. He is an artist who expresses himself through various disciplines. He has worked as an advertiser, published books of poetry and children’s stories, and exhibited his work using multiple forms such as installation, sculpture, painting, video, and photography.

Currently, his work is focused on a single project called SEDIERTO, which addresses his concern about the mismanagement of water and the resulting desertification. For him, “SEDIERTO is the silent cry that expresses the planet’s thirst.”

He views creation as a public good and works with the commitment to establish new connections with nature. Throughout his career, he has held solo and group exhibitions and led creative recycling workshops and poetry sessions.

Although he is a relatively young artist, he has a remarkable career and a prolific body of work in various fields. Performer, sculptor, painter, poet, musician, and lyricist, he embraces the Renaissance vision of the universal artist who navigates between the dreamlike and the empirical university.

He has held numerous exhibitions and received various accolades in painting, sculpture, illustration design, posters, magazine covers, role-playing games, and musical compositions.

Understanding art as a tool for social transformation, his works are created from a subversive perspective of reality, infused with a certain visual poetry. They highlight social injustices and ecological disorder. He advocates for essential rights and environmental preservation through a body of work that, more than that of an artist, is that of an alchemist capable of transforming what seems to be waste into art.

Massegú lives in his own House Museum in Sarrià de Ter, where he also creates his works, offers guided tours, and conducts workshops.