BIOGRAPHY
Born in a family of artists, painting has always been present in the life of Cristina Grisar Brias (Madrid, 1982), being both a genetic language and a substancial part of the imaginary and the idiosyncrasy of her world. Jewellery, on the other hand, is a more personal tongue, although also very primal in her. Being just a little girl, all sorts of signs pointed at the fact that she would dedicate herself to this craft: “I spent hours browsing through magazines looking for jewellery, which I used to cut out and treasure afterwards, or collecting stones at the slightest chance: many I gave away as treasures; others kept them as trophies, to delight myself watching them in secret. It was always a very intimate pleasure.”
This passion arose especially in complicity with her mother, Sylvia, also a painter. “Gifted with an endless cleverness and sophistication, seeing that I refused to use a mandatory apron over my school uniform, my mom sewed a constellation of crystals of various colours on the inside, with what she transformed a simple piece of fabric into a magical apron, whose secret only we knew: it looked normal, but it truly was extraordinary…” This transmutation of the matter, and the poetry inherent in the gesture, are essential attitudes towards life for Cristina, and that became cardinal components in her vocation.
In each piece of work, multicultural and multidisciplinary influences are present, attributes related to her personal history –life and family between Spain, Chile and The Philippines– and her professional background, with academic education in Literature, Journalism and Design, and consistent training in Painting, Sculpture and Jewellery, among many other areas of interest, all of which result in a great versatility of artistic expression.
ARTIST STATEMENT
My art encompasses multiple formats, that from Painting and Jewellery as primary means of expression and constantly mirrored, is also enriched with the allusion and inclusion of various technical derivations, such as artistic Photography, Sculpture and Land Art, among others in which I have ventured.
It is an essential and multidisciplinary language through which I express my thoughts, interests and emotions outwards, giving form to mental landscapes and building intriguing new geographies, which go shaping and “inhabiting” my creations, and that speak about an intimate vision of this and other worlds… Being a compendium of every culture to which I’ve been fortunate to be exposed to, from this diversity and my own experiences, concerns and travels, I extract concepts, ideas and materials that I include in my work, generating an artistic universe of my own from many different types of territories, with frequent references to nature, and within it, particularly to the organic, the mineral, the submarine and the cosmic.
Therefore, my creative process is imbued with a holistic attitude of great freedom, which responds to a creative position of uninhibited experimentation, where the sensory and sensuality are distinctive elements, for what there is an ongoing investigation and search for new materials and solutions that report different qualities of matter: textures, transparencies, colours, lights… Aiming to generate new imaginaries and formulate new definitions of beauty.
The “concept of jewel” is a key element to comprehend my work, inherently tied to the magical and metaphysical character which a certain object acquires –be it a painting or a jewel itself– after an alchemical process in its conception where the matter is transformed into a precious entity, vivified and meaningful. From the immaterial to the physical, which in turn trascends materiality and elevates it to higher and more intimate spheres: the spirit. Inviting to feel and dream; to tune in, from the sensible, with a glimpse of immensity.
“And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you,
because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places.
Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.”
_Roald Dahl, The Minpins.