Ana del Castillo - Bergen

I continue with my ultramodern architectural paintings in the Nordic countries, one of the topics I am passionate about, architecture and landscapes.
It is a large-format painting, carried out with pigments and acrylics on canvas and paper. It carries a simple canvas.
Economist and multidisciplinary artist (Godella, Valencia. 1963). Professionally I am an economist, devoted to online commerce in recent years, activity that I have postponed in order to travel almost exclusively, to experiment as a painter, and to work for different international agencies as a photographer.
Her beginnings in photography go back to her childhood; she has work published in the ABC newspaper, in publications of the Ministry of Culture, various books, several catalogs, or in the bus shelters of Castellón, in addition to various awards and exhibitions in London or Madrid. Her academic training spans several years with photographer Tere Arcos.
She finds in Europe, although globalization advances by leaps and bounds, in each country and its cities, unique characteristics that she tries to capture in her images, both of people she encounters on the streets and of buildings from all periods, or moments in any location.
Her trips to Iceland, Switzerland, South America, Africa or Norway have influenced her with their mountains, architectures, and seas, another of her great themes both pictorially and photographically.
Her dedication to painting came 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 beginning 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 warehouse on the outskirts of Valencia; the group remains in constant contact among themselves and with art vanguards in different contexts. One of the group’s goals is to organize one or two annual exhibitions. Many exhibitions have already been held by this group in our geography.

Technically, for the creation of her paintings she uses powdered pigments, “their tonal range is ideal for my paintings, which turns the studio into a kind of laboratory of dishes and powders in which binders, resins, etc., form a chaotic universe where I feel absolutely serene and creative.”
In recent years her artistic production has been showcased in exhibitions, mentions and awards. Notable early successes in 2016 with Equipo-Argo include the group show at Centre d’Art Taller d’Ivars in Benissa (Alicante), the collective in May at espai.inf, an exhibition space at the Polytechnic University of Valencia and the collective exhibition Sala Virgen de la Fuente (Teruel), Collective at Casa Cultura Rocafort “La Superficie del Círculo”; in 2017, with the same group, Mirada de Dona at the La Marina El Puig de Santa María exhibition hall (Valencia), Antiguo Ayuntamiento Bétera exhibition hall (Valencia), Museros Exhibition Hall (Valencia), Mirada de Dona at La Eliana Exhibition Hall (Valencia), Paisatje Urbà at the Náquera Exhibition Hall (Valencia); and in 2018 again with Equipo-Argo at the Villa Eugenia Exhibition Hall in Godella (Valencia) with “Abstractus”, collective at Sala Exposiciones Municipal de Mislata (Valencia) and Sala Exposiciones Biblioteca Dénia (Alicante), with “Abstractus”, and a collective at Sala Exposiciones Massamagrell (Valencia) with “Black and White.”
She has been selected for the XXXIV Painting Contest “Salvador Soria” Vila de Benissa (Alicante), in the D’Arts Quart de Poblet Festival (Valencia) exhibition, in the XIII Desideri Llombarte Painting Prize in Peñarroya de Tastavins (Teruel) in 2016. The following year she was selected by the Legado Andalusí Foundation, itinerating her work across the country; she was a finalist in the Premi de Pintura Ciutat de Manises (Valencia), selected in Valencia Ciutat Oberta Biennial of the Arts of Valencia. For 2018 her work was selected for the Dances de Alcalá series in the photography prize of the Gúdar-Javalambre Tourist Association (Teruel), she later won subsequent editions, and was selected in the José Camarón International Art Contest in Segorbe.
In 2014 she won the Camarón prize at the Segorbe Art Contest (Castellón), she exhibited solo with her series Europe in Moments at the Bancaja Segorbe foundation, in 2016 she won the Las Provincias Photographic Marathon in Dénia (Alicante), won the Balearia prize, and the runner-up in the I Eurostars Hotel Real Photography Prize. She is selected and exhibited at the El Piló Cultural Entity of Valencia in 2016 and 2023, and she, along with Equipo-Argo, held a collective show at the prestigious Godella Villa Eugenia exhibition hall in 2018, an exhibition that later moved to the Mislata municipal exhibition hall.
She was 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 organized a collective exhibition at the Ronda Gallery in Valencia, and she 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 accolades 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 surrealist touch that gives her undeniable value.”

Patxi Guerrero Carot (Professor at Jaume I University) published in various media.

Edition
Unique