A conversation with Eva Armisén

episode 2
Mar 08 2019

Barcelona-based artist and painter Eva Armisén discusses her inspirations, the impact of motherhood on a creative career, and new artistic collaborations.

About our guest
Eva Armisén focuses on capturing daily life and everydayness as something extraordinary, offering an exuberant, optimistic look at the world through her work. She earned her Fine Arts degree from the University of Barcelona, before entering the Rietveld Akademie in Amsterdam for further training and study. Although primarily a painter and engraver, she collaborates on a wide variety of projects, most recently the book “Mom is a Haenyeo,” about the diving women of Jeju.

Links

Website
Instagram
Facebook

Resources mentioned
Interview: the InnerView | Kim Min-Jung interviews Spanish artist Eva Armisén about her work and her exhibition Home
Solo Show: “Home” | Hangaran Museum. Seoul Arts Center (Dec 7, 2018–Mar 31, 2019)

Here I am, 2006, Eva Armisén


In My Dreams I Change The World, 2006, Eva Armisén


Walking, 2007, Eva Armisén

“I guess if you are a creative person or an artist and if you listen to yourself… that power, it’s inside you. And you have to keep just listening to it, because it will lead you toward—there are a lot of failures that are coming but there are also nice things—and you know that you don’t need anything to create but yourself.”

Today On Display welcomes Eva Armisén. Eva is an artist and painter who lives and works in Barcelona, lending her talents to a variety of endeavors, including painting, illustration work, public art installations, advertising, television, film production, and editorial projects.

Eva derives her inspiration from everyday life and mundane situations, trying to capture those small moments of joy and convey those stories and emotions though her work. As a result, her art has a playful, energetic quality that conveys happiness and optimism.

“Most of the things that move me happen in daily life or with the people I have around. So that‘s maybe the reason that.. a lot of my paintings are representing, like... that area of life,” she says. “Sometimes family, sometimes the countryside I have around my studio. But they all talk about emotions.”

Eva also works to convey a lot of positivity through her work, a deliberate choice to counter the negative messaging she feels is very prevalent in today’s media and communications. Through her paintings, she says, she can write her own story and offer a different point of view—changing people’s focuses and making the world a more pleasant place to live.

Another aspect of Eva’s art practice is the balance she maintains between preserving her independence and working with and depending on others, both as a woman and as an artist.

“For me that is really really basic, I would say the most important for me, to keep my independence,” she says. “I think my mom delivered that message really clear to me, that no matter what you do you can do it alone or in a team but try always to be independent, just in case ... In an extreme case I know that I have my own work and it’s my territory, and I can decide what to do and don’t do, you know?”

She and Mauren discuss how this sense of independence has extended to the balance she keeps between being a mother and an artist, as well. Eva says that, although she still sometimes has guilty moments, she never felt like she had to or should have given up her career, and is proud of how her children have turned out.

Eva have been involved in numerous collaborations, most recently working on a film and book about the “Haenyeo,” the diving women in the Korean province of Jeju.  

She also shares her advice for other creatives and women artists, saying, “I guess if you are a creative person or an artist and if you listen to yourself… that power, it’s inside you. And you have to keep just listening to it, because it will lead you toward—there are a lot of failures that are coming but there are also nice things—and you know that you don’t need anything to create but yourself.”

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