Marria Pratts
Barcelona, 1988. Lives in L’Hospitalet de Llobregat.
Notes for an Eye Fire exhibition views. Photo: Miquel Coll
Marria Pratts is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice exudes an uninhibited and spontaneous spirit, taking inspiration from her immediate urban surroundings in L’Hospitalet (Barcelona).
Her work can be read as a defiance of our social structures, the contradictions that permeate the city, and the challenges of living in places under the constant threat of gentrification. Pratts’ instinctive approach to artmaking conveys an upbeat sense of resilience.
The new multi-canvas installation presented here floats away from the wall and off the floor, adding to the buoyant dynamism of the artist’s unabashed brushstrokes, spray lines, scribbles, and burn holes. A continuous streak of pink links the canvases and leads to one of the characteristic ghost motifs that often inhabit Pratts’ works like souls of the city’s past, while blue and red hand-crafted neons weave in and out of the panels, interrupting the scene like intestines.
Making of
Photos: Latitudes and Hiuwai Chu
About Marria Pratts
Marria Pratts is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice exudes an uninhibited, spontaneous spirit. Her artistic output includes a repertoire of decidedly varied formats. Drawing, painting, sculpture, carpets, furniture and fanzines combine playful energy with a bright and optimistic colour palette. Within the apparent cacophony of her paintings, a series of recurring motifs—clocks, faces, hands, ladders and the ubiquitous ghosts—emerge as representatives of encounters from her meanderings through the city. Entering her L’Hospitalet home and studio is like stepping into one of her paintings. She takes inspiration from her immediate surroundings: the streets, the people who inhabit them and her close circle of friends and regular collaborators, including photographers, designers and musicians. Her work can be read as a defiance of our social structures, the contradictions that permeate the urban landscape and the challenges of living in places under the constant threat of gentrification.
Marria Pratts studied graphic design at the Escola Massana, Barcelona, but is largely self-taught. She has had solo shows at Everyday Gallery, Brussels (2021), and SADE Gallery, Los Angeles (2019), and group shows at Tecla Sala, L’Hospitalet de Llobregat (2021), and Costa Mesa Conceptual Art Center, Los Angeles (2020). Her work also featured in Punk: Its Traces in Contemporary Art, which took place at the Centro de Arte 2 de Mayo, Madrid; MACBA Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona; and Artium, Vitoria (2015–2016). instagram.com/marriapratts
