interview with artist anna taratiel aka OVNI

interview with artist anna taratiel aka OVNI
portrait by marco buddingh

anna taratiel aka OVNI is a spanish artist based in amsterdam. her work spans myriad media and sizes; from small canvases to large murals, always exploring abstract forms and bold colors. anna told us more about her process and influences…

designboom: what originally made you want to become an artist?

anna taratiel: as a kid, I loved to spend time drawing and painting and I wanted to spend all of my time doing it and, ideally, draw and paint for a living. I thought that it would be great to have a job that makes you feel that you don’t do it for the money, just because you like it. some time later, I realized that whatever you do professionally, even if you like it and even if you enjoy it… it’s not always going to be fun… work is work… although the profession I chose isn’t always as I imagined it to be in my childhood, I feel super lucky and grateful to do what I do.

DB: please could you briefly describe your journey so far?

AT: I first studied design and then mural painting. at that time, barcelona started experiencing a great moment in street art and graffiti and I got involved in that scene. it happened that my abstract graffiti works attracted the attention of other art professionals and I began collaborating with ROJO projects who got me commissions to collaborate with a number of big brands like nike, smart and others.

in parallel to doing large scale mural paintings, in 2011 I started working with a young gallery in barcelona, CIS art, and they promote my work as a gallery artist or support me in some of the projects I’m commissioned to do. I have also collaborated with a few galleries in amsterdam, the city I live in at present, like andenken, minigalerie and recently kallenbach gallery. this year, my gallery in barcelona has started to collaborate with a gallery in shanghai to promote me there.

art is part, 2012 – taratiel collaborated with students from 2 schools to develop this mural at a basketball court / playground in spain.

art is part, 2012 – participants were given a 4 x 4 grid and assorted forms to place within it however they liked.

art is part, 2012 – each 16 square design was then painted on the wall to create the mural.

art is part, 2012 – section of the completed design.

DB: how would you describe your approach?

AT: in general, I use clarity and simplicity for a strong impact.

I usually work on creative projects or phases that evolve every 2-3 years. they are always different and changing, but they are always about abstraction, shape and color, organic and geometric. the organic shapes was the focus in my earlier works. later, a more rational and structured view gradually started to take over the impulsiveness of the beginning and geometric lines slowly replaced the previous irregular forms and impossible shapes.

now, after a lot of research I feel like jumping to a new level mixing both sides; looking for new textures, destroying and building again, exploring ‘unknown shapes’ – pure elements and a way to combine them without extra ornamentation.

nova electra school mural, 2012

DB: who or what has been the biggest single influence on your way of thinking?

AT: I’m not sure about a single one… probably, if I had to say one, I would go back to the beginning… the moment I got into street art and I met my family crew, los martinez and, in general, many people I met during that exciting moment that we lived in barcelona in the early 2000s. we still remember it as a ‘golden age’.

I knew a bit about graffiti, but what was going on in barcelona at that moment wasn’t the graffiti that we knew before then. it was street art, a free amazing way to share and get inspired… definitely, this influenced me and pushed me to start to paint walls with my abstract ideas, no graffiti letters, no characters or figures, just abstraction, art concepts in public spaces. these days I’m not active in illegal interventions, but i’m still painting and enjoying legal and private mural projects as much I can. but the foundation of that, the idea of sharing in public places and getting close to people… I still believe in this and live it in new ways.

mural in spain, 2011

DB: has anyone or anything recently challenged your views on art?

AT: ‘art is part’ a collective project I worked on with 2 schools and CIS gallery. I created a formula where each kid used same 9 shapes and 5 colors inside a small portion of a huge grid. this collective project change my feeling and the way to understand art and expression. the union of 400 kids ranging from 3 to 18, working together and taking part in a bigger work but feeling individually challenged… it was amazing and very powerful.

DB: what would you say is your strongest skill and how have you honed that skill over the years?

AT: I would say the use of color. it’s a never ending research. I’m increasingly hypnotized by it. I always get surprised by new colors, and color combinations.

parts ‘n’ pieces project, 2013 – this project saw taratiel paint unique murals on the side of houses in a dutch street…

parts ‘n’ pieces project, 2013 – the people within the community designed the mural for their homes using pre-defined forms by taratiel.

parts ‘n’ pieces project, 2013 – some of the various configurations that would become murals

parts ‘n’ pieces project, 2013 – anna completing one of the murals in amsterdam.

DB: what materials do you enjoy working with the most?

AT: for a few years now, I have been doing a lot of collage works and therefore I would say paper and tape. I like to keep all cutout pieces from other projects, and reuse them again because the left over shape is beautiful and unexpected. it’s like a huge puzzle that begins by chance with one attractive part that captures my attention and that I invite myself to combine them and the whole work starts from a ‘random’ point.

DB: what materials would you like to explore in the future?

AT: as a project, I would like to do pattern series in paper wall and fabric as an excuse to go from huge single object mural painting to a more limited size and the need to create something that looks appealing in a repetitive mode as well. for more individual projects I’m also interest to learn new techniques and explore materials to use with my large scale or ‘gallery sized’ works, like plexiglas or ceramics for example.

mural in brazil, 2009

DB: what are your thoughts on specialisation vs generalisation?

AT: in the business world it is often said that being specialized is a good thing because people will come looking for you as you are expected to be a master of a certain technique. I guess that this applies to the art world only in a limited way. there is no point in mastering the art of the mural painting technique if your mural painting itself is not attractive or meaningless. I think that most of the artists I admire are specialists at being themselves no matter what artistic discipline they decide to explore and very often they collaborate with other artists or expert professionals who can help them with certain technical details and, by doing so, interact on a creative level.

coming from the street art scene, I learned the value of collaborating with other artists as a way to share experiences and expertise to achieve a harmonic result where each voice can be heard and is at the same time amplified by the rest.

paths, 2013 (80 x 80cm)

DB: how do you think online design resources have influenced the art being produced today?

AT: they have had a massive impact for good and bad at the same time, in my opinion. online resources help to explore new options and feel connected to what others are doing, but it can also help you loose focus.

place of access, 2013 (80 x 80cm)

DB: what are you currently fascinated by and how is it feeding into your work?

AT: I’m interested in interactive art works; transformable installations, games and formulas to create collective art projects. for one of my last commissions for RUA (reflexo on urban art) I was asked to paint the facades of several buildings all on one street (26 in total), in order to get the community more involved in what was going to be their homes. I developed an online application to invite anyone to suggest the possible combinations that would end up on the buildings’ walls.

dirty tape 3, 2014 (50 x 50cm)