Miriam Dema
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Studio Talks
Conversation between Miriam Dema & BETA Photography by Mauricio Sauma & Cheché Valdés
A Dialog of Emotion
Miriam Dema delves deep into the world of emotion, imperfection, originality, and social expression in art.
We're thrilled to introduce Miriam Dema as the newest artist to join the BETA family.
With a background in Fine Arts from the University of Barcelona, her artistic journey is truly inspiring. Dema's art pays homage to the allure of imperfection and the generosity of life during moments of splendor. She is captivated by the charm of small irregularities, whether in craftsmanship, the marks left by the passage of time on a wall, or the arrangement of objects on a table. To her, these imperfections offer windows into diverse realities and memories, showcasing raw beauty steeped not only in historical significance but also emotional resonance. As a result, she strives to depict human presence in everyday elements and nature, creating scenes that evoke warmth, relaxation, and elements of Mediterranean culture.
Dema's passion lies in wax crayons and oil pastels, treasured for their imprecise and rustic qualities. She revels in the randomness they bring to her drawings, along with their nostalgic and childlike connotations. In her intuitive, memory-driven approach, she creates works characterized by partially revealed layers and vibrant hues. Her creative process mirrors her method of recollection: layered, unrestrained, and idealized. The result is a collection of dynamic artworks imbued with subtleties and textures, inviting observers to glimpse a part of the creative journey within the final outcome. Miriam Dema perceives art as a dialogue with both oneself and the world.
After studying fine arts, Miriam relocated to Lima, Peru, with the intention of studying Peruvian cuisine and distancing herself from painting. However, the new environment and distance from home sparked her artistic inspiration, shaping her distinctive style. Dema draws her creative motivation from people and their ways of connecting, expressing affection, and sharing. She views cooking and food as tools to transform relationships, colors, and textures in nature.
Now, Dema has established herself as a highly successful artist in the vibrant Barcelona and European art scenes, with her recent exhibitions making waves in prestigious art capitals like Paris and London.
We are delighted to announce our collaboration, commencing with this interview where we delve deeply into her artistic journey, her insights into the art world, and the individual behind the creations.
You mentioned that your stay in Peru was a turning point in your creative style. Can you tell us more about how that transformative experience was and how it influenced the evolution of your art? Have you had any recent travels that may have made you rethink things?
During the last years of Fine Arts I was going through an emotional and creative block that made it impossible for me to express myself in a pictorial way, so I started to work on the themes and concepts that interested me through other media. Cooking was a way of expressing my creativity in which I felt safe and happy, and it became the core of most of my projects. When I finished my degree I went to live in Peru to study Peruvian cuisine, and there everything changed. I gained enough distance to get rid of the anxiety generated by the expectations, and at the same time I was so amazed by the richness of the colors of the ingredients I was surrounded by that I started to paint them. After three years without touching a paintbrush I began to find a line of work in which I began to see myself represented, something to draw from. Eventually my passion for painting won out over cooking, and a year and three months later I returned to Barcelona, focused on it, and here I am still. Years later I've realized that I've always been inspired by the same things, and although my work has changed a lot since I started painting again, human relationships, resisting haste, and food as a form of care are still at the center of my work.
Traveling is very helpful for me to get some distance to refocus, to plan where I want to go, to analyze what I like about my current situation and what I want to change... it is also a great source of inspiration since I am much more receptive and observant when I travel. New ideas always come up!
Your work encompasses both oil painting and analog photography. How do you decide which technique to use to express your ideas and how do the materials influence the message you are trying to convey?
Photography and video was for me mostly a way to record intimate moments and interventions or more performative works. That was many years ago. As for painting, the first years I always painted in oil, it's a technique that I love because of the brightness and texture of the colors. The thing is that at a certain point it started to give me minor health issues, so I had to find alternatives. Nowadays I paint mostly with acrylics, oil sticks and oil pastels. Acrylic allows me to be more spontaneous in my painting, since the drying time is very short and it allows me to apply multiple layers, and also some colors have transparencies that create a beautiful interplay. Oil pastels and especially oil sticks are a delight, they are rough and unpredictable and it makes the process a game and gives the work a naïve air that I like very much.
You have described art as a dialogue between the artist, the materials, and the viewer. How do you get your works to establish this dialogue and convey your emotions in the way you want them to?
The truth is that I don't think much about the viewer when I paint, my dialogue is with the work. I like to think that the emotion I put into painting is transmitted in one way or another to the painting. If I am lucky, the viewer will connect with what I have been evoking in my process, although they may also read something different because of their own experience. There is a part of the dialogue that I miss, and that is different with each person who interacts with the piece, and I find that very beautiful.”
Your work focuses on the beauty of imperfection. How do you find the balance between your artistic expression and the search for perfection in your compositions?
I look for a balance and a play between the colors and elements of the painting, but I don't look for perfection in my compositions. In fact, something is much more beautiful to me (in art and in all fields) when it has some irregularity, a "defect". Fortunately, in my artistic practice I have been able to free myself over time from a perfectionist tendency that completely distanced me from the enjoyment that inspires me and my works.
You have mentioned several sources of inspiration, from nature to music and cinema. How do you manage to merge these diverse influences in your artwork and create something unique and coherent?
The truth is that it's not intentional. It's all part of my imagination, of my day to day life. I think that coherence is something simple when you talk about your personal experience. Every day we live thousands of stimuli that generate positive or negative emotions, that connect us with ourselves and our environment or distract us. Painting is for me a channel through which to value what makes life better, to return to it by bringing it into my practice.
Describe in detail what your creative process is like, from the initial idea to the finished work. How has this process evolved over the years and what challenges have you faced along the way
Most of the time I start from an idea, an emotion or a period to which I would like to return or where I feel like staying for a while. The last works I've done for example are inspired by my childhood summers at my grandmother's house. Sometimes they are broader ideas, for example I often go back to the moment when you feel that winter is ending and the best of the year is coming (hence so many mimosas, since I was little it has been the sign that, soon, the warmth of spring was coming). Other times I go back to more specific moments or imagine moments that have not happened, but as you can see I practically always do it through table settings. With that in mind, I play with the composition, the color and the elements to evoke it, I work in layers and I add or cover images and colors based on what I think the painting needs. Each time it's different, but that's more or less the game!
Your works often capture everyday moments and shared scenes. How do you get each element of the painting to tell a story and contribute to the overall narrative of the work?
When I paint, I "travel" to the scene I am painting, and I incorporate elements that make sense to me in that context, while providing the rhythm or color that the composition needs. I often add or delete elements that no longer make sense as the painting progresses. I start the painting with an idea but it is never clear to me how it will end.
You mentioned music as a source of inspiration, how do you think music and visual art can interact and complement each other?
My experience is that art that awakens something in you, something that clicks, inspires you to create, like starting an engine. Experiencing different views and forms of expression of other artists opens the mind and the heart, and stimulates your desire to contribute in the same way.
We want to know about your upcoming exhibitions and projects, can you tell us a little bit about what we can expect in terms of themes or new approaches you are exploring?
This month I have an exhibition in Paris in which I am presenting some works that are a tribute to my grandmother. It's a theme that I'm looking forward to continuing to work on, as it connects me to some of the happiest times in my life and leads me to work from a very powerful nostalgia and emotion. I will soon be presenting a collection of works for The Curators, and I am preparing a solo exhibition that will take place very soon in Barcelona.
In a world saturated with images and artistic styles, how do you ensure that your work is original and distinctive in today's art scene?
For me, there comes a point where there is so much excess information that I think that you keep very little of what you see. In that sense, it may even help us not to turn to the same references constantly, and therefore fall into repetition or involuntary copies. It helps me to draw inspiration from my daily life and my memories more than from other painters.
The art market can be competitive and sometimes dictate trends. How do you find the balance between creating authentic art and meeting the expectations of the market and collectors?
It's not something I'm very mindful of. I try to create as honestly as possible, and luckily whoever is interested in my work comes to me in one way or another. I believe that what has been done honestly is timeless, and the changes in my painting have more to do with a personal evolution.
Some artists use their work as a platform to express political and social opinions. Do you think artists have a responsibility to address current issues in their art? Or is artistic creation a way to escape from reality?
I believe that good art is created from what moves the artist, from what they want to tell through their work. I don't believe in duties when it comes to art. Even so, I would like to point out that art that does not work on political or social themes does not necessarily have to be evasive. On the contrary, it can be a way to connect with oneself, to unblock forgotten memories or new sensations, to find purpose, to gain perspective. Anything that is moving and exciting is born from a connection. For me, art created from emotion is the least evasive thing there is.
Quick, “viral” fame through social media can generate a lot of (short-lived) interest in an artist and their work. How do you think this culture of fleeting attention affects the appreciation and appreciation of art in the long run?
I think everything is moving faster and faster, we receive more and more images, stimuli and easy dopamine. The appreciation of art requires time and intention, which is something less and less common in our day to day life. The inertia to which the current social context leads you is something that I think we must resist in order not to get lost, as it leads to a disconnection and superficiality that is not sustainable in the long term. Although it is a problem that frightens me a little, I am confident that there is a search for meaning that is in our nature, to which one eventually returns, and art is a channel for it.