Art Madrid'25 – PAULA BLANCO: BETWEEN PRIMUS AND ORDIRI, OTHER FORMS OF NATURE

Paula Blanco

CONVERSATIONS WITH MARISOL SALANOVA. INTERVIEW PROGRAM. ART MADRID'25

Paula Blanco (Oviedo, 1996) explores the forms of nature, connecting them with science, territory, and the environment through artistic creation. The mountains, the sun, leaves, and trees serve as inspiration to create structures with clay, pigments, varnishes, and fiberglass, resembling fragments of organic creatures.

Each piece is not a finished work in itself but part of an evolving continuum, as she constantly experiments. Her sensitivity is skillfully channeled into her creations, which seem to pivot on the use of alternative techniques to traditional painting. She seeks to sublimate matter, separating the idea from the object. Her approach to abstraction is ethereal, expressing itself through landscapes and the places where raw materials originate.


The only blue organism. 2024. Mixed media on fiberglass. 98 x 138 cm.


What role does experimentation play in your creative process?

Experimentation plays a central role. Initially, I wasn’t aware of its importance in my process—it just happened naturally. I would follow a narrative thread, and experimentation was my organic way of reaching what I sought. Early on, I distanced myself from the stretcher frame because I found it limiting. I needed the edges of the pieces to be part of the composition, so I used traditional materials like canvas, paper, or oil paint in unconventional ways. I adapted materials to what each work required, without adhering to traditional rules.

Everything came together after a residency in Dubai. When I returned, I felt disconnected from both the work I had created there and my earlier work. It was like a beautiful suit that no longer fit. So, I consciously decided to connect the dots between the different series of works I had done. That’s when I realized the common thread was experimentation.

What I seek—and continue to seek—is the organic. I work with abstract elements, trying to explore the language of matter and elevate it to an almost ethereal plane. My goal is to separate the language of matter to reach something primordial and essential. I understood that experimentation was the foundation of my work, the medium to reach that organic essence from different angles—always through the language of matter and lightness. For me, it’s the most direct path to that essence.


Where the sky is created. 2024. Mixed media on fiberglass. 127 x 166 cm.


What are your references?

When I think about influences, I divide them into three groups:

The first includes artists and creators I consume daily through social media, cinema, or other forms of leisure. Even if they don’t directly relate to my work, they inevitably influence me in some way. The second group consists of my peers, my partner, and the people I share artistic perspectives with. Even if we work on different things, there’s a network of support and mutual inspiration. We recommend materials to each other, share ideas... It’s a more indirect influence but equally significant. Love you, friends.

Finally, there are the core influences: the artists who have marked turning points in my journey. For example, when I started painting, I was fascinated by Sorolla, especially his use of light. Although it’s not evident in my current work, that interest in light remains a crucial part of my language.

Then came Francis Bacon, with his approach to the visceral and the organic in open spaces. I was deeply affected by his ability to compose with central organic masses. Later, I discovered Berlinde De Bruyckere, whose wax sculptures replicate skins full of incredible transparencies and glazes. Her extensive material research to achieve her desired results inspired me to think, There must be a way to express myself, too. A professor once told me that the moments when you’re not painting are just as important as when you are, and he was absolutely right. At that time, Berlinde De Bruyckere inspired me to say, Maybe I shouldn’t be producing right now—just experimenting and taking it slow. Sometimes in art, you want everything now, now, now, but it’s more worthwhile—and productive—to pause and avoid obsessing over production for a while until you find that something you truly want to achieve, instead of struggling with the canvas.

Finally, Nolde was an unexpected discovery. I had never been particularly interested in watercolor or his use of color, but his expressive and free landscapes inspired me to explore color in my work. This was significant because I had always worked with muted tones, blacks, and grays. Seeing his work made me realize I could find my voice in color. Nolde opened up a new path for me, even though all the previous influences remain present in my work, albeit more subtly.


The arch it guards. 2024. Mixed media on fiberglass. 149 x 140 cm.


How do your roles as a cartoonist and painter interrelate?

Honestly, they barely intersect because they are very different languages. I can’t work on both simultaneously since they require completely different mental approaches. For instance, when I was working on my book Qué vergüenza haber nacido (What a Shame to Have Been Born), I was entirely immersed in the world of cartoons.

Cartoons emerged as a tool to organize my ideas about the world—a visual diary. They were incredibly helpful during my formative years, but I feel I don’t need them as much now. Nevertheless, they were fundamental to my development.

I’ve realized that these two parts of me—cartoonist and painter—are very distinct and well-separated. While they might seem to have nothing in common, I believe both are driven by a search for truth, by the need to dissect reality and reach what is true.

In painting, I focus on the organic and the primordial, while in cartoons, it’s a visceral sincerity. So, while they are two very different paths, they share the same destination. Right now, painting is my mother tongue, so to speak. It’s where I feel I can most purely achieve what I want. Cartoons have a more narrative component, helping to put things in order, whereas painting—perhaps because it’s more abstract—reaches corners that cartoons can’t.


Dog howling at the moon. 2024. Mixed media on fiberglass. 194 x 150cm.


What aspect defines your artistic language?

When I work, I constantly seek a balance between chaos and intention. My technique, as I’ve mentioned, revolves around pursuing a primordial organic force. An excess of intention or human intervention could kill that organic force.

It’s about finding balance: controlled chaos. For me, it’s crucial to maintain an equilibrium between the initial idea for a piece and what happens during the process. Although I don’t work with sketches, I always need a starting point: a color, a shape—something that sparks the urge to create. You begin with an idea of what you want to achieve, but it’s vital to remain open to what the work demands as it evolves.

The balance lies between what the piece asks of you and what you initially wanted. Often, your original plan won’t work 100%. That’s why you must be receptive to the piece suggesting new forms or colors. However, it’s equally important to maintain clarity to avoid being swept away by every new idea, as you’d never finish otherwise.

It’s also about balancing the pictorial and the sculptural. Although I approach my work pictorially, it’s evident that it has an installation-like quality. The pieces are translucent, viewable from both sides, and can be hung mid-room, where the surrounding air becomes significant. Each piece needs space around it to fully reveal its form.

Ultimately, I aim to observe the painting as if it were a being, almost with its own body. The uneven contours of the pieces reinforce this concept, creating a balance between painting as an entity and painting as an object.


The intentions of a flower. 2024. Mixed media on fiberglass. 173 x 117 cm.


How do transparency and light influence your works?

Light plays a crucial role in arranging the pieces, especially due to their translucency. I usually hang them in two ways: either on a wall or from the ceiling.

On the wall, the pieces are mounted with magnets to avoid puncturing them—something I find essential. Their distance from the wall significantly impacts their appearance. The closer they are, the more saturated the colors appear, emphasizing their pictorial quality. The farther they are, the more their object-like quality emerges, highlighting contours, textures, and the interplay of translucent layers with light.

Suspending them from the ceiling further desaturates the colors and gives full prominence to their object-like quality. Viewed from all angles, the works reveal their seams, collaged layers, and the delicate textures of overlapping paint.

I prefer natural light for display, as it integrates the work into the space, aligning with my goal of capturing the organic and primordial. These pieces, like fragments of the world, connect with the air and light around them, reinforcing their essence.





In collaboration with



RAÍCES AFUERA. PERFORMANCE CYCLE X ART MADRID'25

Art Madrid celebrates twenty years of contemporary art from March 5 to 9, 2025, at the Galería de Cristal of the Palacio de Cibeles. During Art Week, it becomes an exhibition platform for national and international galleries and artists. In this edition, with the aim of providing a space for artists working in the realm of performance art, the fair presents Raíces Afuera, a performance cycle that explores notions of belonging and the need for rootedness in a contemporary world marked by fragmentation, displacement, and disconnection. Positioned within the fair as a critical and reflective space, the project challenges the individual’s relationship with their environment, community, and sense of identity.

PERFORMANCE: LAS FRONTERAS SIEMPRE TIENEN DOS LADOS. BY ELÉONORE OZANNE

March 6 | 19:00h. Galería de Cristal of the Palacio de Cibeles.


The real true tourist experience. Johanna Failer & Eléonore Ozanne. Performance Documentation.


You leave the house, and someone holds the door for you: "Oh, sorry—thank you." You’re walking down the street, and someone comes toward you: "Uh, sorry—thank you." If I’m late, if I can’t find something, if I don’t sit in my usual spot, if I ask for help, or if I don’t know what to say… "Sorry—thank you."

How many times have we said these two words? To whom? And why? Why does your mouth not sound the same as mine?


Day In, Day Out. Eléonore Ozanne. Performance Documentation.


Las fronteras siempre tienen dos lados invites us into the author's mind to discuss boundaries. Large boundaries that frighten. Tiny boundaries that are forgotten, and all those in between, with which we must negotiate, build, or tear down.

Las fronteras siempre tienen dos lados is a work that encourages reflection on the invisible borders that shape our daily lives. Through the words "sorry" and "thank you", the author sets up a dialogue about how, in our everyday interactions, we are constantly faced with limits and distances—both physical and emotional. Every time we use these words, we are acknowledging a separation, whether it’s letting someone pass or asking for help in moments of discomfort. The work highlights how these small phrases, often repeated without much thought, serve as a way to negotiate our relationships with the world and those around us.

In this context, the boundaries explored in the work are not just geographical, but also social and personal. The barriers that separate us from others may be subtle, but they significantly affect our daily lives. Through these gestures, we are constantly building, breaking down, or accepting the limits that define our relationship with others. Las fronteras siempre tienen dos lados challenges us to question how we perceive these boundaries and how words that seem simple actually reflect the complex dynamics of our existence.


The real true tourist experience. Johanna Failer y Eléonore Ozanne. Performance Documentation.


ABOUT ELÉONORE OZANNE

Eléonore Ozanne (Corbeil-Essonnes, France, 1990) is an artist and researcher working between France and Spain. She is a doctoral candidate in Fine Arts at UPV/EHU and Université de Pau et des Pays de l’Adour. Her work focuses on the relationship between the body and borders in everyday spaces. Through displacement, the multidisciplinary artist draws the concept of borders as physical limits or invisible walls that are crossed daily. She uses her body as the central axis of her work, exploring through actions, the movement through, across, or into predetermined spaces or times.

She has been awarded numerous residencies in Spain, Mexico, and Europe, including NauEstruch and CECDA in Veracruz. She has collaborated with artists such as Pilar Albarracín and is a member of the research teams Gizartea and Alter, where she actively participates in exploring ways to understand precariousness and displacement in the era of globalization. Her work has been exhibited at international festivals and venues, such as Matadero Madrid and Cidade da Cultura de Galicia. Additionally, she has published texts on art and precariousness in publishers like Dykinson and the University of the Basque Country.



With the support of