As part of CPS's participation in Fig Bilbao, every year a Residency Prize is awarded at our studio. Irati Retolaza was the winner in the latest edition of the event dedicated to contemporary printmaking.

The work now presented has as its central motif, the bed, “OHEAN” in Basque, imbued with the artist's own experiences. A symbolic and poetic object, an intimate and refuge space, which evokes the cycle of human existence: birth and death, love, union and separation, sleep and wakefulness, dream and reality. Twelve windows open to the same space, telling different stories of a place we can call sacred.

Maria João Fernandes (AICA) states: “the artist values memory with expression in both drawing and printmaking, in a language close to an oneiric figuration that involves movement, as seen in the somewhat cinematic sequence”.

We can also add that both the chosen disciplines: drawing and printmaking, and the choice of predominantly used supports, small-sized paper, refer to the reflection on intimacy and identity, where environment and experience gain relevance.

“Ohean”, Print, Etching, Aquatint, 50 copies

“In its apparent simplicity, the bed contains the complexity of our experiences and emotions.

 

A space where we lick our wounds, change our skin, and hibernate. Rest, love, cry, build.”

 

Irati Retolaza

Irati Retolaza in residency at CPS Atelier

About the artist:

Graduated in Art from the University of the Basque Country, she completed her training with a master's degree in Printmaking at the International Center for Contemporary Printmaking CIEC and in various seminars on Contemporary Art and Graphic Arts at the BilbaoArte Foundation. Her work has been selected in important competitions and exhibitions such as the XVI International Graphic Arts Prize, and in 2023, she received the CPS FIG Bilbao Residency Prize.