The Cosmic Works of Spanish Artist Arantza Pardo
Spanish artist Arantza Pardo shares some of her recent works with Ensemble Magazine, featuring an exclusive look at her new piece, “The Great Phenomenon,” and her recent series “The Unknown.”
Arantza Pardo is a UK-based artist inspired by cosmic phenomena and reconfiguring scientific imagery through her art. Her work strives to combine traditional and digital techniques in immersive-presence experiences.
Pardo’s paintings are most known for being large-scale, almost monochrome in series. She has used the lockdown to start moving towards breaking these parameters into new formats and tones. Her recent exhibitions include: Futurecade, Festival of the Mind at the Millennium Gallery, Sheffield (2020); Manchester Contemporary, Manchester (2019); The Unknown (solo show) at Yorkshire Artspace, Sheffield, (2019); Una Colectiva at Galeria Álvaro Alcazar in Madrid (2019), Spain; Flat + Earth at Sidney and Matilda Gallery, Sheffield (2019); and Masters Salon Painting at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, Belgium (2018).
Pardo writes:
Observation of the astronomical is a humble exercise. It forces you to recognise your insignificance somewhere in space. I find the consciousness of the nocturnal painter quite similar to what I believe the astronomer might feel observing the impersonal nature of the universe through a telescope. The air is cold, the light illuminates the canvas, and the darkness of the Glasgwegian night surrounds the small space which is my studio away from the world. The observed can be broken into fractals, into symmetry, into how the parts make up a whole, in how the patterns are repeated. A sense of fear and uncertainty moves us by what we do not understand, what we do not yet know. The mystery of what could change history at any time surrounds us in the midst of the stillness, of the wear and tear of endless hours of dealing with the blurry line between discovery and creation.
The Unknown No. 10. Oil on canvas. 2019.
Arantza’s studio
The Unknown No. 2 and No. 4. Galeria Alvaro Alcazar. Madrid. 2019.
Pardo’s newest piece, The Great Phenomenon:
The Great Phenomenon, 2021, Oil on Canvas at Studio Arantza
Arantza Pardo is a Spanish, UK-based artist inspired by cosmic phenomena and reconfiguring scientific imagery through her art. Her work strives to combine traditional and digital techniques in immersive experiences. You can find more of her work here: https://arantzapardo.com/ and you can follow her here: @arantza_pardo