Joaquin Vila

Visual artist | Muralist | Cientific illustrator
Madrid – Spain

My artistic career is governed by the constant investigation into the connection between the human being and the natural world, focusing in the study of the processes of transformation, fusion and symbiosis that occur in nature. 

Joaquin VilaMy personal work represents hybrid beings, half human half plants. This beings are debating visually and conceptually between the worlds of science, mythology and fantasy. They refer to the non-material nature, representing life beyond the physical, that which is not seen.  It also shows symbolic elements, glyphs and patterns of different cultures and spiritual paths, creating a code of visual language that refer to the essence of all of them. Its aim is to convey that we are not something separate from nature, but that we ourselves are nature. This work is constantly changing and evolving, due to his concern to investigate new formats and expressive resources and for his continuous study about symbolism, ethnobotany, spirituality, ancestral cultures, shamanism and sacred geometry. 

Blue indigo color is an especially element in my work. I use this color because it is the only one that can express the depth, the infinite. Each stroke opens a gate into another dimension, as if the canvas was not the limit but the beginning of another world. The lines and dots represent the vibration, the energy and the electricity that runs in every living thing, they create an optical effect of subtle movement, almost imperceptible, but present. 

I own a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Scenography design from the European University of Madrid and  a Postgraduate in Exhibition design in Elisava, Barcelona. Scholarships by Unesco for the Watermill Foundation in New York  and by the MACBA, Contemporary Art Museum of Barcelona. Complementary studies in Sacred Geometry with Jaime Buhigas, Cientific Illustration in the National Museum of Science and Technology of Spain and Contemporary Art with Joana Vasconcellos, Esther Ferrer, Jaume Plensa and Daniel Canogar, among others.

On a practical level I developed my artistic work especially through paper drawings transposed into big canvases and large scale murals, ocassionally using other resources like sculpture. 

What inspires and guides my work principally is nature in all its magnitude, physical and spiritual. My work is to create images that serve as intermediaries between us and “her”. Like a good friend of mine, Colombian therapist Amparo Arango says: “I am only the flute from where the wind of the universe blows”. And thats we all are, sacred flutes, on each instant of our lives, when we put the right intention. The more I create and investigate the more I feel that my work is like that of the work of a therapist or a shaman in their community, they put the intention in each action, each chant, each gesture, each handling; I put it on each vision and each stroke, and that intention travels through the interdimensional, through the image to fulfill its function of healing.

With my art I try to help people to connect with themselves and with the most profound nature of their beings. For me each piece of art is a ritual, a ceremony and an altar in itself. 

INDIVIDUAL EXHIBITIONS

2018
– Homecore. París, France.
– Workshopia espacio creativo. Madrid, Spain.
2017
– Aniwa Gathering. Ibiza, Spain.
– Grafik Schweiz. Zürich, Swizerland.
2015
– The Unity of Being. La Paloma, Ibiza, Spain.
2014
– Galería Octógono. Asturias, Spain.
2013
– Jamaican Breeze. Westender Inn Hotel. Negril, Jamaica.
2012
– Raíces y otras formas de entender. Casa de Cultura de Avilés, Spain.

COLLECTIVE EXHIBITIONS

2020
– Wisdom and Nature. Le Ciel Foundation. Christie’s. New York. US
2019
– Fêlures et Lumières. Atelier Gustave. París, France.
– World Ayahuasca Conference. Convention Center of Girona, Spain.
– Visionarium Art Festival, Tarragona, Spain.
2018
– Estampa Art Fair. Obra Gráfica Original. Madrid, Spain.
2017
– Seeds of Anaconda & Dreams and Divinities, Sierra Nevada, Colombia.
– Neusicht Festival. Lucern, Switzerland.
– Miscelanea. Valley Centro Cultural, Asturias, Spain.
2016
– Seed of Anaconda, Encuentro de la Montaña. Putumayo, Colombia.
2014
– Galería Octógono. Asturias, Spain.
– World Ayahuasca Conference, Convention Center, Spain.
2013
– Oviedo Art Fair.  Lola Orato Gallery. Asturias, Spain.
– Ideas para un jardín planetario. Lola Orato Gallery. Asturias, Spain.
2012
– Códigos Abiertos. Laboral Centro de Arte. Gijón. Spain.
– Enjambre. Ecolab, Laboral Centro de Arte, Gijón, Spain.
– #Kedarte2012. Encuentros rurales: Arte y tec. Salamanca, Spain.
2010
– Sin Huella. Art & Nature, Huesca, Spain.
– Free Art Celebration. Projekthaus. Potsdam, Germany.
2008
– StripArt. Centre Civic de Guinardó. Barcelona, Spain.
2005
– EMPTY. Festival de Videoarte. Moscow, Russia.
– CIMIENTOS. Qué más de arte Gallery. Madrid, Spain.
2004
– BLOG. Sala de Arte Injuve de la Comunidad de Madrid, Spain.