In the picturesque, medieval town of Pals, Spain, Anna Augustí Hontangas’ gallery is hidden away in a repurposed, cave-like space tucked between a 10th-century church and the town square. Inside, her work is defined by its texture, colour, and range of objects, from African landscapes to her simple series of works titled ‘Football’. Using a mixture of steel sculpture, pigment stain on paper, and collage, she also collaborates with Spanish and Ghanaian artisans to create her vivid depictions of female faces, urban and rural life, and children. Wishing to demonstrate “children with no other worry than their own small area of the world”, this feeling is particularly evoked when viewing her work from a small area of Northeastern Spain, in a town with a population of just over two thousand people. Her series “Football” is particularly interesting, wherein Hontangas poignantly represents the universality of the game, reflected in the simple but effective title of her piece, “Humans”. Hontangas’ exploration of a simple object, ordinary children playing street football, is also perfectly complicated by its mixed media. Her use of colour, texture, re-working, and superimposing elevates her formations of ordinary people, making her art a sentimental and universal tribute to uncomplicated, innocent enjoyment and the mundane charm of everyday living.
Image provided by Sorcha Tipping.