The images that Carme Sanglas has been creating for the past three decades share their own language, founded on a simple iconography of objects, elements from Nature or figures in hermetic spaces that speak to us in parables of a private universe to which access can only be reached in dreams. They are impenetrable spaces, closed realms, habited by Jungian archetypes that recall Tibetan mandalas or Romanesque illuminated manuscripts. Mystic poetry and sacred texts such as the Bhagavad Gita or the Hindu Vedas are a source of inspiration from which Sanglas frequently drinks and her work shares with them the awe of the fable and the mystery of meditation.

Carme Sanglas lives and works in a small village of the Empordà, withdrawn from the hyperactive world of the Contemporary Art circuit. With the patience of a gardener, Sanglas works slowly with a reduced chromatic scale of dark colours on wood, paper or lead, to which she adheres the gold leaf that gives luminosity to the clear and limpid atmospheres that are an integral part of her unique and personal vision.

Carme Sanglas statement

The artist’s work consists of paintings on paper, wood or lead, using the technique of overlaying matte textures with some parts in gold leaf. Gold that has the quality of light incorporated into the picture and at the same time, has its own symbolic value.

Her compositions uses figurative subjects, including figures and objects that, taken out of their normal context or appearance, take on a new form. It is possible to read a descriptive meaning into them in various ways. The images describe themselves or have a certain coherent internal syntax, which is luminous and spatial. At the same time they exist in a strange light that isn’t quite real.

The colors are equidistant between light and darkness, it’s not possible to tell whether it’s dusk or dawn, at times very murky, and at others clearer, but always in stark contrast to the brilliance of the gold. Sometimes the object represented takes on and appears as a distinctive form, or it acquires volume, such as the sheets of lead worked in relief.

Not infrequently, fire is represented (being a process of transformation) and also paths (that imply movement), running water, or simple actions (dawn, a smile or a breath). They add to the dramatic theme of increasing and decreasing light and darkness. One can interpret the images as an allusion to time, as if they were trying to represent or at least suggest it. Sometimes counterposing objects are used, for their own pure presence, and what is said about time.

It is a language that draws information from many sources but that is moving inward. Although appearing similar to that of previous works, with little obvious change, each image evolves into unforseen solutions, discoveries with new meanings, new explanations - and many more questions.

Carme Sanglas has also illustrated periodicals, books and posters. She also enjoys dedicating part of her time to giving art classes to children in her workshop.