Ana Barriga

Her work aims to revisit figurative painting through the photographic image, following paths specific of that medium and investigating painting trends from the end of the 20th century.

She encompasses a wide field of experimentation, that deals with different references from ‘Cut and paste’ painting to ‘Figure-ground’ figuration, expanding in this manner the style and technique of her work towards an open perspective of exploration. Her work sets out to explore the translation of the image into painting as a non-linear flexible process that opens up the plastic possibilities of the work. He applies a ‘ Laboratory’ concept to her practice, assuming tries and errors as a method of investigation. Her paintings aim to reinforce by reduction the very disciplinary character of painting itself. The end result is, therefore, not programed, but rather as a sequence, a struggle for the autonomy of art, by which every decision from start is reflected upon this criterion, starting with the very choice of painting as a medium.

The paintings have a multifocal character, as a game, where the observer is invited to decide and construct the final reading of the piece. It is inevitable that the spectator makes associations and connections that have not been considered or intended by the creator/artist, at least in a conscious way. These subjective perspectives are as important as the very experience of confronting the object.

Her work seems to take us to a theatre scene, where loneliness, silence spaces, deep dramatic shadows, etc. are contrasted intentionally with non-logical and humorous titles, as a strategy to warn the viewer to resist the seduction of the beauty of the image and alerting us to the altered, mediated and constructed nature of it.