ANA DEL CASTILLO - Rorbuer in Lofoten

A soothing landscape from one of my favorite countries, Norway, and the Lofoten islands in winter. The work has just come out of my studio. Pigments with acrylics have been used on a double-thick canvas and paper. The painting does not need to be framed. Finished with epoxy resin; the resin finish is not perfect, the imperfections in its drying give a different character to each piece. On the other hand, the finish is glossy, and the artist wants to give her works a distinctly photographic character. The artist attaches a certificate of authenticity, ships the work insured, with tracking number and with maximum speed. Ana del Castillo is a photographer and artist, winner of various awards, who works for different agencies around the world, and has exhibited her works in London, Italy, and Spain. She uses her photos as inspiration in most of her paintings, where architecture and urban landscapes of cities across Europe or America predominate. She is an economist and a multidisciplinary artist (Godella, Valencia, 1963). Professionally she is an economist, devoted to online commerce in recent years, activity she has postponed to dedicate herself almost exclusively to traveling, to experimenting as a painter, and to working for different international agencies as a photographer. Her beginnings in photography go back to her childhood; her work has been published in the ABC newspaper, in publications of the Ministry of Culture, various books, catalogs, or on the billboards of Castellón’s buses, in addition to various awards and exhibitions in London or Madrid. Her academic training has spanned several years with photographer Tere Arcos. She finds in Europe, although globalization advances by leaps and bounds, unique characteristics in each country and its cities, which she tries to capture in her images, both of people she encounters on the street and of buildings from all eras, or moments in any setting. Her trips to Iceland, Switzerland, South America, Africa, or Norway have influenced her with their mountains, architectures, and seas, another of her major themes at both pictorial and photographic levels. Her painting career began later. She began her artistic training with the artist Álvaro Romero in the nineties, continued with the godellense painter Germá Llorís, then with the painter Fernando Jiménez and with Lucía Peiró i Lloret, a renowned plastic artist. “At the start of the new century she co-founded a heterogeneous group of artists called Equipo-Argo, now composed of thirteen women, who carry out their activity in an industrial space near the city of Valencia; the group remains in permanent contact among themselves and with the artistic vanguards in different fields. One of the group’s purposes is to promote and hold one or two annual exhibitions. There have already been many exhibitions by this group in our geography. Technically, for the making of her paintings she uses powdered pigments; “their tonal breadth is ideal for my paintings, which turns the studio into a kind of laboratory of plates and powders where binders, resins, etc., form a chaotic universe in which I feel absolutely serene and creative.” In recent years her artistic production has been shown in exhibitions, mentions, and awards. Highlights include, in 2016, with Equipo-Argo, the group show at Centre d’Art Taller d’Ivars in Benissa (Alicante); the group show in May at espai.inf, an exhibition space at the Polytechnic University of Valencia and the group show Sala Virgen de la Fuente (Teruel); Colectiva at Casa Cultura Rocafort “La Superficie del Círculo”; in 2017, with the same collective, Mirada de Dona in La Marina El Puig de Santa María (Valencia), Sala Exposiciones Antiguo Ayuntamiento Bétera (Valencia), Sala Exposiciones Museros (Valencia), Mirada de Dona in Sala Exposiciones La Eliana (Valencia), Paisatge Urbà in Sala Exposiciones Náquera (Valencia); and in 2018 also with Equipo-Argo in Sala Exposiciones Villa Eugenia de Godella (Valencia) with “Abstractus”, group show Sala Exposiciones Municipal de Mislata (Valencia) and Sala Exposiciones Biblioteca Dénia (Alicante), with “Abstractus”, and a group show in Sala Exposiciones Massamagrell (Valencia) with “Black and White.” She has been selected for the XXXIV Painting Contest “Salvador Soria” in Vila de Benissa (Alicante), for the Festival D’Arts Quart de Poblet (Valencia), for the XIII Premio de pintura Desideri Llombarte in Peñarroya de Tastavins (Teruel) in 2016. The following year she is selected by the Fundación Legado Andalusí, itinerating her work across the country; she is a finalist in the Premi de Pintura Ciutat de Manises (Valencia), selected in Valencia Ciutat Oberta Bienal de les Arts de Valencia. For 2018 her work is selected for the Dances de Alcalá series in the photography prize of the Turística Association Gúdar-Javalambre (Teruel), she wins later editions, and selected in the International Art Contest “José Camarón” of Segorbe. In 2014 she receives the Camarón prize at the Segorbe Art Contest (Castellón), she exhibits solo with her series Europe in Instantes at the Bancaja Foundation Segorbe, in 2016 she wins the Las Provincias Photographic Marathon in Dénia (Alicante), wins the Balearia prize, and the honorable mention at the I Eurostars Hotel Real Photography Prize. She is selected and exhibits at the Valencia Cultural Entity El Piló in 2016 and 2023, and she, together with Equipo-Argo, holds a group show at the prestigious Villa Eugenia exhibition hall in Godella in 2018, an exhibition later moved to the municipal exhibition hall of Mislata. She is again selected with work exhibited in the José Camarón International Art Contest in Segorbe in 2020, 2023, and 2024. At the end of 2024 she holds a group exhibition at the Ronda Gallery in Valencia, and is represented by Galería del Sol, also located in Valencia. She was awarded the National Heritage photography prize by the Infanta in Madrid in December 2024. She continues to receive numerous honors for her photographs and paintings, and has several exhibitions on her schedule for the coming months across Spain. According to the prestigious critic LFMM, “her architectural works transcend the photographic plane to be endowed with a surreal quality that gives them undeniable value.” Patxi Guerrero Carot (Professor at Jaume I University) published in various media.