Maria Catalan
Artist Statement
My mixed identity defines my art: Spanish-born and 100% bilingual, I grew up between Spain and the US. I then spent four decades, partly in Spain, but mostly in New York City, where I lived in a cutting-edge art-music downtown neighborhood historically populated by Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, Italians, and Jews. I created a successful life for myself in arts administration and music royalties. The result? I've ended up urban, Spanish, and American.
In 2017, Doug Safranek, renowned artist and professor at the Art Students League of New York, introduced me to egg tempera painting. I have worked almost exclusively in this medium since then.
Why Tempera Painting? I enjoy its meticulous brushstroke and layered technique, which create a semi-opaque luminosity, with a transparency and depth of color particularly beautiful and unique to this medium. Although it is a slow and laborious process, egg tempera is versatile, quick-drying, portable, and sustainable. It allìows me to "paint", while maintaining a "drawing"-like quality.
Inspired by early Renaissance painting and the still-lifes of the 16th-century Spanish bodegónes, along with the American magic realists and surrealists of the early 20th century, I aim to capture the beauty of natural forms, ordinary objects, and our daily living environments.
Realistic yet surreal, my works can be considered symbolic, soulful, or at times humorous images of people, objects, and the world we live in. Hopefully, they compel the viewer to pause and reflect upon what is around us.
My most recent "series" - The Way We Live Now - expands on these ideas. In today's world, where people are isolated, solitary, and less inclined to be social, our interior spaces have become safe havens. A "portrait" of a living space can be just as profound as a portrait of a person. My works are snapshots into these spaces. Viewers can delve into the details, appreciate the idiosyncrasies, and draw their own conclusions about the person who inhabits it.
Exhibitions
Upcoming:
Red Dot Winner’s Group Exhibition, Fridman Gallery, New York City, August 2025
“Cien Años de Creación y Memoria de la Casa de Ramon Menéndez Pidal y María Goyri” exhibit, Madrid, Spain, June - October 2025
Featured cover of exhibit catalog for “La Casa de Maria Goyri”
Egg Tempera Group Exbition, New York Arts Student League, Red Dot winner for “Sara’s Apartment”, May 2025
Online Group Egg Tempera Group Exhibit, New York Arts Student League, featured cover for “Pimientos de St. Maria”, May 2025
“Entre Amigas” Exhibition, Galería Mujer Rayo, Madrid, Spain, May 2024
Maria Goyri Conmemoración 1873-2023, Madrid, Spain, April 2023
Egg Tempera Group Exhibition, New York Arts Student League, special merit award for “The Way We Live Now" 2023
Egg Tempera Group Exhibition, New York Arts Students League, special merit award for “Pumpkins” 2018
Education
Drawing
Studied with Don Amadeo Gisbert Roca, Madrid, Spain 1985
Works in Egg Tempera
Studies with Doug Safranek, New York Arts Student League, New York City, October 2017 – present
Other Experience & Education
Art Administrator at the Asia Society, Bronx Museum of the Arts, Gallozzi-LaPlaca Gallery, Jerry Brandel Gallery, Norfolk’s NYC, ARCO Spain, JRankin Reid
New York University, BA in Political Science and Fine Arts
New York Law School, JD
María Catalán
Declaración del Artista
Nací en España y crecí entre este país y Estados Unidos. Fue aquí, a la edad de 14 y 15 años, cuando asistí a la academia de dibujo de Don Amadeo Roca.
Finalmente me establecí en la ciudad de Nueva York durante algunas décadas, hasta mi regreso parcial a Europa en 2019.
Siento que mi identidad mixta define mi arte. Urbano, americano y español con gran interés por las expresiones artísticas del pasado.
En 2017, Doug Safranek, renombrado artista de tempera al huevo y profesor de la New York Arts Student League, me introdujo en la pintura al temple al huevo, y he pintado con esta técnica desde entonces.
Disfruto de la meticulosa pincelada y la técnica de capas de la témpera al huevo, que crea una luminosidad semiopaca con una transparencia y profundidad de color particularmente hermosa y única en este medio. Aunque es un proceso lento y laborioso, la pintura al temple al huevo también es versátil (de secado rápido), portátil y sostenible y me permite “pintar” con una calidad similar a la del “dibujo”.
Inspirándome en las pinturas del Renacimiento temprano y en los bodegones españoles del siglo XVI, junto con los realistas mágicos y surrealistas estadounidenses de principios del siglo XX, mi objetivo es capturar la belleza de las formas naturales, los objetos ordinarios y nuestro entorno. Realistas pero surrealistas, pueden ser imágenes simbólicas, conmovedoras que, en ocasiones, tratan con humor a las personas, objetos y al mundo en el que vivimos. Con suerte, obligan al espectador a hacer una pausa y apreciar lo que nos rodea.