La casa m (de misterio) [House M (for Mystery)] (2010)
Oil on canvas
150.5 × 130.3 cm
BA Collection
Inventory No.: 2010.172.1
La casa M (de misterio) [ House M (for Mystery)belongs to a project that addresses domestic architecture from an unnerving eye. The drab houses depicted evoke a type of familiarity loaded with ambiguity. As if the sinister is insinuated under the appearance of normality, her works posit that what is monstrous does not always appear as something grotesque, but often goes unnoticed under the surface of the everyday. Her paintings reflect the artist’s constant curiosity and uncertainty about the surrounding world. The impossibility of fully knowing our environment means that nature becomes an enigma and even threat to the individual. This constant state of uncertainty and of the insignificance of the human being in terms of the scale of the universe both intimidates and dazzles the artist.
Her paintings are often driven by the intersection of intimate situations and of her personal readings on physics and other fields of science. The houses that appear in her paintings have a halo of tenebrism as they are added to imaginary, bleak settings or are in adverse natural surroundings. Pozuelo thus creates scenes that are reminiscent of horror films or science-fiction literature. Her work invites speculation about the unknown to the human senses and what is hidden from us behind things’ appearances.
García-Pozuelo’s paintings address domestic architecture from an unnerving eye. The drab houses depicted evoke a type of familiarity loaded with ambiguity. As if the sinister is insinuated under the appearance of normality, her works posit that what is monstrous does not always appear as something grotesque, but often goes unnoticed under the surface of the everyday.
Juana García Pozuelo’s paintings reflect the artist’s constant curiosity and uncertainty about the surrounding world. The impossibility of fully knowing our environment means that nature becomes an enigma and even threat to the individual. This constant state of uncertainty and of the insignificance of the human being in terms of the scale of the universe both intimidates and dazzles the artist.
Juana García-Pozuelo (Logroño, 1978) is a visual artist who has lived in Bilbao since 1996. After graduating in Fine Arts from the University of the Basque Country, she completed a Master’s Degree in Art Creation and Research at the same institution. Juana furthered her education at international centres, such as the School of Visual Arts of New York and the Summer School of Fine Art in Salzburg. Since 2001, she has developed a figurative pictorial style focused on different conceptual themes. Her work has been exhibited in twelve solo shows at different national galleries and institutions, and has taken part in many group exhibitions right from her earliest days. Since 2020, she has been involved in the Artoteka project, which facilitates the loan of works to institutions and private individuals. In 2024, she was selected for the Eusko Jaurlaritza grant programme to foster the Visual and Plastic Arts. Her career includes different grants and residencies which have enriched her artistic production. In 2019, she was awarded the Institut Français grant, with support from the Bilbaoarte Foundation, for a residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris. In 2024, she was selected for the Nautilus residency in Lanzarote and she was the recipient of the Bizkaia Provincial Government grant in 2012. She has also twice been a resident artist at the Bilbaoarte Foundation and, in 2008, at the Snug Harbor Cultural Center in New York. She has received two acquisition prizes at La Rioja Parliament’s Painting Competition. In March 2025, she worked on part of her project at Le Jardin des Métiers d’Art et du Design (JAD), in Sèvres (Île-de-France), thanks to an exchange programme between the Department of Hauts-de-Seine and BilbaoArte.