Vanessa Donoso Lopez is a Spanish artist living and working in Dublin. She holds Fine Art Degrees from Winchester College of Art, UK and University of Barcelona, Spain. Her mixed media pieces explore childhood, sexuality, memories and the complexities of human relationships in an approach that is often ironic and humorous. Frequently, 2D and 3D aspects support each other in the same piece. The found objects and images used have personal significance to the artist and are used in a metaphorical way. She has held solo exhibitions in Ireland, Spain, England and Sweden. She is in numerous public and private collections including the Office of Public Works, Microsoft Art Collection and Royal Hospital Donnybrook

"In my work, I use a figurative language involving many different media. I collect and create objects, images, sculptures, toys and mechanisms that I use to develop new interpretations of my own life, often through my relationship with my own childhood. I use the figure of the child as metaphor for the adult and also for the artist who leads a life of imagination an illusion, not feeling like facing the world of adulthood, reality and human vulnerability. Perception and emotion play an important role in a work that explores taboos and fantasies apparently presented as children’s games but revealing how most fetishist behaviours spring from childhood impressions.

Under these conditions, sometimes, I play as a child and I give myself the privilege of complete freedom and spontaneity in my creations but with the advantage of the knowledge that an adult may have. I compare my studio with a creative laboratory. And I play.

I play to be scientific,
I play to be a chemist,
I play to be McGyver,
I play to be an artist.

Pure fun.

Working on several projects at the same time with different media, the ideas, strategies and images mix and multiply. My compositions and installations develop almost of their own accord. Frozen in time but also ephemerous in nature they often works as metaphorical investigations. Playful and ironic humour is an underlying part of my work often reflected in the titles of the pieces.

I present the works within the context of my own universe of influences, creating scenarios with endless imagery and references, where unusual animated constructions of hybrid worlds and separate disciplines coexist; high and low culture, drawings, digital images, sculptures, installation, electronics, mechanisms, video. In a seemingly innocent appearance, I like to prompt a debate on how different expressions live together and about the elements that make up contemporary practice and my own role as an artist." Vanessa Donoso Lopez, 2007.