Carlos Sagrera

The main subjects in Carlos Sagrera’s works are interiors, identity and the mystery of everyday life. The Spanish painter depicts domestic spaces where time seems to have stood still. These spaces evoke associations and memories of a familiar past, and as a spectator one might wonder whether they existed in reality or were simply imagined by the artist himself.

When glancing into Sagrera’s works, one might recognize furniture and objects from the nineteen fifties and sixties; the period when Sagrera’s grandparents furnished their home. Sagrera lived together with his grandparents for much of his childhood and later found old photos of when their house was brand new. He immediately saw something meaningful in the changes that had occurred over time—from what it looked like before he was born to what it looked like presently. Layers had been added over time. These photos became an archive that acts as the starting point for a series of paintings: pictorial representations interweaving the past and present.

Sagrera is interested in the passing of time and collective and personal memories. In his research of the evolution of domestic spaces, he explores the concepts of familial generations, wear and tear, and the habits and behaviors of the private domain. Inspired greatly by Dutch seventeenth century painters, Sagrera re-interprets this historical style of realism with a contemporary abstraction. His color-rich scenes create an intriguing tension between the materiality of represented objects and the effect of the paint itself. The resulting imagery is somewhat ethereal and impressionistic, much like a fading memory.

Carlos Sagrera graduated for his Fine Arts study in 2011. After graduating from the academy in Spain he received a scholarship to work in the famous Spinnerei in Leipzig, Germany. Sagrera feels connected to the artists of the Leipziger Schule and is able to add his own interpretation of reality to this artistically rich environment.

Grants & prizes:

2017     Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation, Quebec, Canada.

2015 ‘2nd award’ ‘…and a thousand miles behind’ ArtWalk, Leipzig, Germany.

2014 ‘IV Encontros Artistas Novos’. Cidade da Cultura de Galicia. Spain.

2013 – 2012 Scholarship for Young Creators, Antonio Gala Foundation. Córdoba, Andalucía. Spain.

Collections:

Caldic collection, Museum Voorlinden, Wassenaar, The Netherlands.

Hildebrand collection, Leipzig, Germany.

ING Collection, Th Netherlands.

Antonio Gala Foundation, Cordoba, Andalucía. Spain.

UEM Collection. (European University of Madrid). Madrid, Spain.

and other private collections.