Laura López Balza

The drawings and paintings of Laura López Balza (Santander, 1984) are energetic, intimate, funny, uninhibited and sometimes sour. Through them she shows and spreads her enthusiasm for the infinite richness and variety of what is observed, lived and imagined.

Her work deals with primary emotions in a passionate and expressive way, narrating her own life experience through an inner world composed of fables in which nature, landscape or everyday life are the protagonists.

They are minimal stories, remembered, imagined, lived or idealised, reflecting desires, preferences or fears, but always a hymn to the joy of living. Laura paints to see, to know and to understand. Formally, her work could be described as anti-academic, defined by a great intensity in chromatic interaction and a certain primitivism in form, which links it to positions of great transcendence in contemporary art, those that choose not to strictly respect the laws of illusionist painting in order to achieve greater expressiveness and interaction.

The artist's creative process is based on her personal experience and an extraordinary sensitivity to perceive the world and all that inhabits it. Close to ancestral animism and to the traditions of symbolism, surrealism and expressionism, everything in her work is alive and magically communicates with each other. Humans, animals and all the elements of nature are placed on the same level and share sensations, supported by the vibration of her very wide chromatic palette and her intuitive compositions, far from any canon. Both colour and form are born of pure emotion, brought to the surface with a formidable freedom of expression that escapes conventionalism and manages to represent much more than what the eye sees. Her stories appeal to the emotions of each viewer and demand their full attention, as they are full of subtle details that turn each work into a device capable of transforming those who perceive it through aesthetic experience.
Her paintings recount events or sensations experienced by the artist so that they do not fade into oblivion, taking on the canvas, cardboard or paper a status of privileged moment and absolute present. This speaks to us of a precious way of understanding life, which attaches great importance to small discoveries and everyday surprises.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS | EXPOSICIONES INDIVIDUALES

2024. El sol que miro y me cuenta, Galería Juan Silió , Cantabria

2023. Invitación al bosque, Castillo de Argüeso, Cantabria

2022. El sueño de los dos pájaros, Galería Juan Silió, Santander

2022. Un Paseo, CreaVA 22, Valladolid

2021. Solo Project feria MARTE, La Gran, Castellón

2021. El viaje, Observatorio del Arte de Arnuero, Cantabria

2019. Pinta Miami, galería La Gran, EEUU.

2018. Pintar para ver, galería La Gran, Valladolid

2016. Mundos, Ó!Galeria, Portugal

2012. En Bruto, galería Guillermina Caicoya, Asturias

2021. Bestiario, galería Miscelanëa, Barcelona

GROUP EXHIBITIONS | EXPOSICIONES COLECTIVAS

2024. Slices, Mepaintsme Gallery, EEUU

202. Feria Estampa, Galería Juan Silió, Madrid

2022. Impulso, Da2 Domus Artium 2002, Salamanca

2022. We are not alone en The curators room, La oficina, Barcelona

2021. Still Alive, ArteSantander, Cantabria

2021. Un mundo que no existe, galería La Gran, Madrid

2019. Cuarto de invitados #1: modos de representación, galería Juan Silió, Cantabria

2018. Verde-Amarillo- Rojo, Aula Cervantes de Dakar, Senegal

2017. In/out, Museo Patio Herreriano, Valladolid

2016. Premio BMW de pintura, Centro Galileo, Madrid

2016. Otra puta feria más, Galería 6+1, Madrid

2014. Girls just want to have fun, galería Astarté, Madrid

2012. Todo empieza sin vida, Feria ArteSantander, Cantabria

2011. Del sol experiences, Galería del Sol ST, Cantabria

AWARDS AND RESIDENCIES I PREMIOS Y RESIDENCIAS

2024. Residencia Nautilus Lanzarote, Islas Canarias

2023. Residencia Nautilus Lanzarote, Islas Canarias

2022. Premio de Artes Plásticas del Gobierno de Cantabri

2021. Premio adquisición UBE, feria MARTE, Castellón

2018. Residencia en La Doce, Pontevedra

2017. Leon Adriaans’s Art Residency, Holanda

2013. Beca de residencia Artistas en LAVA, Valladolid

2012. Primer premio de pintura en el Certamen Nacional de Arte Joven Pancho Cossío, Cantabria

2012. Bienal de Arte Contemporáneo Catalán, 2012- 2013, Barcelona

2010. Primer premio en el Concurso Nacional Casimiro Sainz, Cantabria

PUBLIC AND PRIVATE COLLECTIONS | OBRA EN COLECCIONES

Fundación La Gaceta, Gobierno de Cantabria, Colección Eulogio Sánchez, Colección UBE, Colección Aldebarán, Ayuntamiento de Reinosa, Ayuntamiento Camargo, Ayuntamiento de Sanxenxo, Universidad de Jaén, Colección Asociación de Periodistas de Cantabria…