Son[i]a #175
Eulàlia Grau
Since the early seventies, Eulàlia Grau has been using press and advertising images to denounce the way in which the media spread ideologies and forms of behaviour designed to strengthen the power structures of the capitalist system.
Gender stereotypes, class differences, labour exploitation and the repression and persuasion mechanisms employed by institutions are key themes of her work. By means of a direct language expressed in the form of emulsified canvases, silkscreen prints, posters, books and magazine inserts, Eulàlia Grau addresses a broad and diverse audience.
The exhibition ‘I Have Never Painted Golden Angels’ focuses on the works produced by the artist in the seventies and the early eighties, and also includes her recent piece ‘Me gustaría vivir en un lugar donde nadie me viera. Maria’ (‘I’d Like to die in a place where no one can see me. Maria’), 2012, which sets up a contrast between images of the current crisis and cases of political corruption, and the day-to-day life of a homeless woman.
SON[I]A talks to Eulàlia Grau about art and protest, about art audiences, and about the creation processes behind some of the works that can be seen in the exhibition.
Eulàlia Grau
Part avant-garde artist and part activist, Eulàlia Grau is considered to be one of the most combative voices of a generation that fought for a profound change of values during the final years of Franco’s dictatorship and the early years of the Transition. Using images taken from the media, the artist draws attention to the perversions and injustices of the capitalist system and its mechanisms of control, repression and persistence.