Carmen Rey

Born in Mataró, Barcelona, in 1971. A graduate in Chemistry, I came to painting in 2014 after a career in the scientific and pharmaceutical industry.

I work mainly with the human figure and the oil portrait, on linen, wood and paper, moving between close observation and passages where the paint dissolves into texture. I am currently developing "Trazos del Mañana" (Traces of Tomorrow), my first body of work conceived as a series, about the passage from an intuitive gaze to a conscious one.

My work is aimed at people who look for more than decoration in art: paintings that speak to them, that provoke questions, that keep them company. I think of each piece not only as an aesthetic object, but as a presence with a soul.

2nd Prize at the IV Illustrated Haiku Contest of the University of Salamanca (2025). Finalist in the III Francisco Pedraja Muñoz International Painting Prize, with exhibition in 2026, and selected for the ModPortrait Special Edition catalogues.

Here on Saatchi Art I show my series "Visions of the Portrait", "Intimacies" and part of "Internal Landscape".

2014-2018 - Continuous training with the painter José María Caamaño, Barcelona, Spain.

MEAM, European Museum of Modern Art, Barcelona - "Oficio de Pintor" (The Painter's Craft) programme: life drawing and figure painting.

In-person workshops on oil portrait, figure, cityscape and illustration with Antonio López, Paco Lafarga, Alejandro Carpintero, Felipe Alonso, Ismael Fuentes, Irene Cuadrado, Jafet Blanch and Joshua LaRock.

Online workshops with Alex Kanevsky, Catherine Kehoe, Jennifer Pochinski and Jacob Dhein.

Degree in Chemistry, with a previous career in the scientific and pharmaceutical industry.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2023 - "Visiones del Retrato" (Visions of the Portrait), Bukólica, Mataró, Spain
2020 - "Búsquedas" (Searches), Sala de Exposiciones Sant Lluc Casal, Mataró, Spain

GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2026 - "The Harmony of Vision", Hsinchu Art Museum, Taipei, Taiwan
2026 - "The Harmony of Vision in Hong Kong", Illuminati Fine Art Gallery, Hong Kong
2026 - "Donde vuelve el color", AE Gallery, Córdoba, Spain
2026 - III Francisco Pedraja Muñoz International Painting Prize, finalists' exhibition, Fundación CB, Badajoz, Spain
2025 - "Beyond Resonance", Mariam Cremades Estudio y Galería de Arte, Alicante, Spain
2025 - "Ya están aquí", Galería Origen, Madrid, Spain
2025 - 25th Anniversary of Cercle Artístic Sant Lluc, Palau Mercaders, Barcelona, Spain
2025 - Artelibre 25th Anniversary, New York, USA
2025 - Artelibre 25th Anniversary, Zaragoza, Spain
2025 - Artelibre 25th Anniversary, Museo de Móstoles, Madrid, Spain
2024 - "Bukólica Experience", Mataró, Spain
2024 - FIKVA MiniARTures, first figurative art contest, Dordrecht, Netherlands
2024 - "Beyond the Scars", Art Fluent, online
2023 and 2024 - Almenara Collection Art Prize, works included in the online exhibition phase only; no award received
2023 - "Mujeres Artistas" (Women Artists),...