Francesca Llopis facts for kids

Francesca Llopis, a visual artist from Barcelona.

Francesca Llopis (born in Barcelona, 1956) is a visual artist from Barcelona, Spain. She started showing her art in 1981. Her artworks are often inspired by her travels and by nature. She mainly creates paintings, drawings, and video installations. She also works with other artists like Barbara Held and Robert Waytt. Francesca believes that "Painting, drawing, and moving images are the main tools I use to start any new art project."

She has shown her art in many countries, including Spain, France, Switzerland, the United States, Italy, Germany, Korea, China, Colombia, Argentina, Brazil, Taiwan, and Japan.

Her Art Style

Francesca Llopis's early paintings were influenced by architecture and a style called Neo-expressionism from the 1980s. This helped her show urban culture in her art. She is very interested in cities, especially how they look from above. She often uses the idea of a labyrinth (a maze) to describe a city.

Her art is also inspired by American abstract expressionism and artists like Louise Bourgeois, Judy Chicago, Meret Oppenheim, Nancy Spero, and Eva Hesse.

Her more recent artworks have a deeper meaning, often touching on feelings and social topics. She creates these pieces so that the people who see them can add their own thoughts and ideas to complete the artwork.

Her Artistic Journey

In 1976, Francesca Llopis studied at Escola EINA, where she met many other artists. Between 1979 and 1981, she worked in interior design and received an art scholarship to study in Warsaw, Poland. A big political event there made her change her art style. From then on, "travel" became a very important part of her artistic process.

Between 1983 and 1986, she started her professional art career. She had exhibitions like Història d'una temptació (History of a temptation) in Montpellier, France, and Barcelona trasbalsada (Barcelona overwhelmed) in Barcelona. In 1988, she lived and worked as an artist at the Accademia di Roma in Italy and the École des Beaux Arts in Nîmes, France. There, an art critic said her paintings showed "semantic structuralism," meaning she was very focused on built spaces and the meaning of words.

In 2002, she showed her first video installation called 2 habitacions amb vistes (2 rooms with views). This artwork was a look at society in Barcelona. In 2004, she started a project called ETC to talk about how few women artists are included in art history.

In 2009, she began a new painting style, combining inks and notebooks in new ways. This led to different art pieces, films, and large murals. In 2015, she took part in an art event in Japan called the Biennial of Noseden. Her project, Dealers of memory, included a video installation called Apunts per un iceberg (Notes for an iceberg) and an installation called Llibre de llàgrimes (Book of tears). These works connected personal feelings with bigger ideas about the universe.

In 2016, at an exhibition in Japan, she created Traction action. This installation used pink footprints from people in the city to connect humanity with the universe. She also did a performance art residency in Busan, Korea. In 2017, she presented Llum! (Light!), an installation with neon and glass at Montjuïc Castle in Barcelona. This piece explored historical memory. She also performed us & the state of things in different cities and participated in the Big Draw event at the Picasso Museum in Barcelona with her works Insecta'm and Enjardina't (Insect me and Garden yourself).

Selected Exhibitions

• La societat és una flor carnívora (The society is a carnivorous flower), Sala Vinçon (Barcelona, Spain, 1993) and Westwerk (Hamburg, Germany, 1993)
• Brot de Rauxa (Sprout of Rage), installation, Pla de la Catedral de Barcelona, with Barbara Held (music) and Paloma Unzeta (trapeze), Festival “Dia de la terra” (Barcelona, Spain, 1995)
• Paranys foscos (Dark traps), installation (Capella de sant Roc, Valls and El Roser, Lleida, Spain, 1996)
• Un embolic magnífic (A magnificent mess), Espai (Girona, Spain, 1996)
• Malaltes d'amor (Sick with love), installation at Kulturforum (Lübeck, Germany, 1999)
• La via làctia (The Milky Way), installation with Begoña Egurbide at Barcelona underground, Valldaura station (Barcelona, Spain, 2001)
• 2 habitacions amb vistes (2 rooms with views), video-installation, Centre d'Art Santa Mònica (Barcelona, Spain, 2002)
• Artista! (Artist!), Canal 33 (Barcelona, Spain, 2008)
• Apunts d'un iceberg (Notes for an iceberg), video-installation, Creadors en Residencia, Institut Fort Pius (Barcelona, Spain, 2011)
• 7 murals (7 murals), permanent work, Mercat de la Boqueria with Carme Pinós (Barcelona, Spain, 2011)
• Nosaltres & l’estat de les coses (Us & the state of things), Museu Molí Paperer (Capellades, Spain, 2018)

Collective Works and Festivals

• Cinco chicas (Five girls), Buades gallery (Madrid, Spain, 1982)
• Saló de tardor (Autumn Salon), Saló del Tinell (Barcelona, Spain, 1982)
• Artur Cravant, performance with Carles Hac Mor, Ciento gallery (Barcelona, Spain, 1983)
• Casino, Miró Foundation (Barcelona, Spain, 1983)
• 6.8.89 Tian’anmen, Hospitalet-Art (Barcelona, Spain, 1989)
• Les allumés (The lit ones) (Nantes, France, 1990)
• Enigma, Sala Montcada "la Caixa" Foundation (Barcelona, Spain, 1993)
• Drums, desire, after summer "Z-A", video with Barbara Held, “Store front for art and architecture” (New York, USA, 2007)
• ETC and Eucaliptus, installation at ”Festival de cine de mujeres” (Women's Film Festival), Saura Foundation, (Cuenca, Spain, 2010)
• OSAKA 1, video-installation, CosmoCaixa, SCREEN Festival (Barcelona, Spain, 2012)
• New iceberg, video-installation, “Guerrilha festival” (São Paulo. Brazil, 2012)
• Ruidos silencio (Noises silence), Juan Naranjo (Barcelona, Spain, 2017)

Grants, Prizes, and Publications

• Joan Miró International Drawing Prize, Fundació Miró (Barcelona, Spain, 1981)
• Grant of the Ministry of Culture (Spain, 1981, 1996)
• Grant from the Generalitat de Catalunya (Spain, 1983, 1990, 2001, 2003, 2007)
• Grant at the Acaddemia de Roma, Foreign Affairs Ministry (Spain, 1988)
• Grant at the l'École des Beaux-Arts de Nimes (France, 1989)
• Prize of artistic trajectory, Institut de la Dona, Generalitat de Catalunya (Barcelona, Spain, 2002)
• Art i futur (Art and future), editing of lithographs (Barcelona, Spain, 2015)
• Poster of the Passió d’Olesa (Barcelona, 2017)

See also

In Spanish: Francesca Llopis para niños