Sara León

Born in Badalona, Barcelona (1980). I studied sculpture, finishing in 2003. In 2011 I started studying humanities, and took a year in ceramics. I began to make busts of different ethnic groups, in sculptural ceramics, because of my influences in anthropology.

I am passionate about figuration, without reaching hyperrealism, as I always look for a point of fantasy and liberation when creating.

Throughout this period I have worked on the busts, perfecting the clothing and textures of all the ornamentation in each work, and of course, the anatomy, those features of different ethnicities that I try to capture. I have been greatly influenced by surrealism. I base myself more on the concept than on his works, leaving aside the rational. For this reason I began to wrap the pieces in an aura of vegetation, a reverie, an idea of dreamlike vegetation that emerges from the heads emulating floral hair, which are entangled around their bodies and faces, where each flower is a world full of life and meaning. Giving prominence to its colors, through which I can represent purity, elegance, joy and even death.

Depending on the structure, shape and color of the “headdresses”, one can pretend simplicity and suddenly become complex. You can seek the expression of harmony and the desire for balance, you can get lost in the abundance of ornaments bordering on baroque.

While I work mixing values of more classical styles and renewing the idea of the importance of color in sculptural ceramics, I decided at that time to try animals, also thinking about animalistics, which is the representation of animals in art. I put the same emphasis on capturing their faces and features, because I believe in a personal way, that a greater amount of hidden life, unknown to us, emerges from their heads, which I want to show as if they were sticking their heads out of the jungle with all the foliage around them. As if it were a snapshot of that moment, I capture gestures and postures where I try to show a feeling in each animal.

Thanks to the abundance of color contained in the works, achieved through hundreds of color tests, and carefully placed in all the organic plant forms that surround each of the pieces, I have created a language in my works where different classical styles are mixed. For example, the concept of surrealism, where everything is possible within a dreamlike fantasy, where the search for realism is intertwined in the clothes and ornaments, arising from nature, in the purest modernist style, but always following my own style, a style with a very personal modeling, although easy to identify throughout my production.

With all this, I try to express or explain all the factors that surround me and condition me when creating this new artistic language that I want to show, full of light, color, organic shapes and original vegetation, where a microcosm is created around the piece.

Works