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.
HA Schult, a great representative of action art, has been a pioneering artist in addressing ecological issues through art and is still very active in ecological movements today. He has drawn global attention with his interventions and artistic creations; for example, with Situation Schackstrasse, he covered entire streets with trash, and with Trash People, he filled various prominent locations around the world with an army of anthropomorphic figures made from scrap metal.
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.
Born in 1967 in Paris, the son of German artists, Orson grew up on the island of Formentera between 1970 and 1982. He then returned to Paris to finish his studies and still lives there. His first solo exhibition took place in New York in 1988. Since then, he has exhibited in France, Germany, and Spain. In addition to his paintings, inspired by a trip to Senegal, he has been creating sculptures made from cans for many years, representing animals with minimal intervention in the materials, respecting part of the original object.
Lopez-Alert holds a degree in Fine Arts and a diploma in Library Science and Documentation from the University of Barcelona, UB. In 2009, he spent some time in Michigan (USA), where he developed a series of poetic and contemporary works with reused paper bags, which he called the Michigan Papers Series. His interest in the environment, industrial society, landscape, and everything surrounding him, and how it affects and conditions human life, are recurring themes in his work. Michigan Papers is the starting point for many of his subsequent artistic proposals, in which he advocates for the contemporaneity of drawing, painting, and printmaking in a world dominated by digital images, almost always using reused materials.
Books, forever! is an evolving artistic project; a critique of consumer society from a reflective and poetic perspective. Used books—filled with knowledge, thoughts, and literature—serve as a starting point to explain the accelerated transition to a world that is increasingly technological, where digital images dominate while painting and drawing tend to disappear. Works where different languages coexist, subtly interwoven to create a new contemporary narrative.
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).
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.”
