Cristina Lopez Casas

I create images based on my own experience as a woman, twice an immigrant, artist and grandmother of 4. I offer a great range of images, from the sweetest to the melancholic, from energetic to peaceful, always concious of the complexity of life.
I paint by memory, do not use any photos or references to copy from. Most of my ideas come from doodling and drawing small sketch notebooks. I use glazing, as in the flemish techninque, to build color layer by layer letting the characters develop their own mood and story.
My latest painting are done without blues, loosely and colorfully using the Zorn palette. Since blues have always been related to the religious world, this absence reflects better my intention to remain free of old beliefs that have oppressed women for centuries.

I studied Graphic Design in Chile in the 80s. It was a school of architecture and design and the teachers were artists that followed the Bauhaus principles adapted to the Chilean environment. The abstract agenda was not my cup of tea.
In Mexico City I studied for a Masters Degree in Visual Arts on Painting. The subject of my thesis was "Arte fantástico de México 1960-2012". Where fantasy is understood in the literary sense, as a structure to confront the known with the unknown. A shorter version of my thesis was published in Revista Brumal from Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona in 2016. In that paper I presented the idea that fantasy is still very much present in the production of art in Mexico, as opposed to what it was said back in the 60s when an historian, Dra Ida Rodriguez Prampolini, determined that the legacy of José Guadalupe Posada was over, after Mexican painters adopted the surrealistic trend. Nothing could be further from the truth. Fantasy is as alive as ever and it is here to remind us that art is not only about realism.

I showed my paintings in design fairs and cafés in Mexico City while I was a studying.
I was selected as "artist of the month" at the Galería José María Velasco, a unique and historical gallery in the heart of Mexico City.
I have never done a solo show. The whole idea seems a bit of a myth, and not as easy as it should.
I had my paintings in the historic centre of Oaxaca, but not anymore. The market is so small ther eis no space for me there cause people like things that are from famous local painters only. Except for my mother-in-law's hotel, Casa Esmeralda Hotel, an historical building with huge quiet rooms in the center of the city.
My art is for collectors of unique and unclassifiable art. There are paintings that explore gender but I am not parading. Some things are political but I am not into political art. I understand how a postmodern painting should look like and I do not do that. I escape niches by the way of illustrative, sweet, conventional or the academic.