Synopsis

Joan dedicated this mural to her father, producing an image that is inspired by a photograph taken by him years ago in her home, in which she herself appears as a child in her mother’s lap. An image that hides certain symbols and elements that allude to and honour the figure of her father: the stairs, the ball, the swallow, the sickle, the pigeons, the fish, and the warm colours create an intimate narrative with which she communicates much with little, and with which she achieves a magical dialectic with her loved ones linked to a time that originates an open dialogue with the rest of the public.

Bio

Xoana Álvarez Martin trained as an illustrator, economist, and anthropologist. She studied in Granada, which is where she began working in the field of painting in 2008. In 2013 she returned to Galicia and, together with Miguel Peralta, founded the Cestola cooperative, where she works as a muralist, painter, and illustrator. Her work is influenced by the classical artists of Galician painting and other contemporary ones, especially those related to the world of illustration and muralism. She uses her characters, mostly female, to highlight a search for simple shapes with which she endeavours to convey a personality or life story.

Image gallery

XOANA ALMAR (Galicia) “Casa”