Synopsis

Xoana Almar painted this mural at the Santa Isabel Sports Complex, located in Galeras, a Santiago neighbourhood historically linked to the hard and feminised job of washing clothes. As the artist found out from members of the A Xuntanza neighbourhood association, in a meeting before starting this project, many women living in Galeras used to supplement their agricultural income, up until the mid-20th century, by working in the area’s washing places.

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 and Raquel Doallo, 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) “Lavandeiras do Sarela”