Creatives

Flowers and lots of colour; this is Marina Benito, illustrator and artist with a great passion for botanical illustration and everyday aesthetics. Graduated in Fine Arts from the Complutense University of Madrid, as a child she felt an affinity for the craftsmanship of her grandmother and mother, who inspired her to dedicate herself to what she is most passionate about: art. This artist from Madrid also teaches botany workshops because, apart from painting, what she likes most is encouraging others to paint. According to her, it is a wonderful feeling.

Solstice is an ode to the colour and light of winter, made for UIC Barcelona as part of the Impars project, to celebrate Christmas 2024. The Holy Family blooms among cyclamen, olive branches, marigold and brassica. Strong, resistant plants, some of them nicknamed the wonder of the winter sun.

From her studio in Madrid, Marina invites us to be inspired by beautiful things and embrace what we are passionate about, because only then can we be happy.

Painter and drawing teacher. In addition to Fine Arts, she has a degree in Psychology and a master’s degree in Film Direction. She has made her greatest childhood dream come true and turned her passion into her work. Creativity and her training have led her to explore different artistic expressions like writing, film and music. She has exhibited her work at the Espai Jove Casa Sagnier and this year she is the artist who created the work Nativitat for UIC Barcelona as part of the “Impars” project to celebrate Christmas 2023. We meet Chiquinquirá Carbo where she is most comfortable: outdoors, surrounded by beauty and nature in the La Tamarita gardens of Barcelona, her hometown.

Painter and ilustrator. Passionate about nature. She has more than 23 thousand followers on Instagram, two books, LIFE. Illustrated Bestiary (VIDA. Bestiario ilustrado) and LIFE. Illustrated Herbarium (VIDA. Herbario Ilustrado), which are a success and, besides being one of the best-known Catalan illustrators, Joana is the author of Naixement, made for UIC Barcelona in celebration of Christmas 2022. Joana Santamans is pure energy, talent and a non-conformist. She opened the door of her house for us and, at the end of the hall, where her daughter and dog are running around, we reached her studio. You can breathe the art… dozens of brushes, easels, paintings of all kinds and sheets of flowers and animals covering the walls all the way to the ceiling, but technology is also present with two big computers, where Santamans digitises her creations. Although almost every national news outlet has interviewed her, we want to know a little more about her and above all learn about the creative process in her work Nativity (Naixement).

UIC Barcelona has just opened the doors to the new University Clinic of Support for Advanced Diseases and Palliative Care, Cuides. Located on the second floor of the Hospital Universitari General de Catalunya, the clinic is home to a multidisciplinary team of professionals from various speciality fields such as medicine, nursing, psychology and social work. It was launched with the aim of caring for and supporting patients with advanced diseases, as well as their families, in a comprehensive, active and individual manner. The project has been in the pipeline for several years and has been made possible thanks to the involvement and commitment of companies and institutions.

This year the “Impars” project chose illustrator Judit Canela to create the UIC Barcelona 2021 Christmas Card. For her proposal, entitled “Vincles”, Canela chose to recreate an intimate moment in the Holy Family, in which Joseph, Mary and the infant Jesus come together into an embrace as a symbol of the family unity that is so representative of these festive dates. We talked to her about her artistic career.

Artist Nuria Riaza has been chosen by “Impars” to design the 2020 UIC Barcelona Christmas card. The artist’s illustration, entitled De herencias y tradiciones (Of Heritage and Tradition), is inspired by her childhood memories of Christmas with the whole family in her parents’ village. The result is a BIC pen drawing of the Holy Family, with colourful embroidery of flowers and ornaments added to the central scene and composed as an antique print. We had the chance to talk to her and reflect upon her artistic career.

Marina Anaya is the artist selected by “Impars” to design UIC Barcelona’s Christmas card for 2019. The artwork is entitled “Nativity”. It depicts the traditional image of the holy family enveloped in an embrace, and is a collage made from fragments of engravings.

Impars and the UIC Barcelona School of Architecture have joined forces to bring Cinta Vidal’s talent to the walls of our university. As of May, the façade of the Aula Magna and the gate to the entrance of the Barcelona Campus will grace large murals symbolising the concept of university as a space for generating knowledge. We spoke to her about her career and her project for UIC Barcelona.

Carla Cascales Alimbau is the artist chosen by “Impars” to create the trophies for the WeCare Festival. Her creation consists of three irregular glass spheres, which, in turn, include three small wooden spheres. The glass represents the energy each person gives of, while the wood is associated with the denser, material aspects of the human body. If anyone is capable of portraying the fragile nature of the end of life represented by the WeCare Awards, it is Carla Cascales Alimbau.

Roser Matas is the artist chosen by “Impars” to create the 2018 UIC Barcelona Christmas Card. The work consists of an adaptation of the “Adoration of the Shepherds” (1505-1510), by Giorgione, in which Roser’s characters visit the adoration through a technique known as photocomposition. She decided to name her reinterpretation “Visiting the Adoration of the Shepherd’s”.