BIOGRAPHY
Mercedes Carreras Aranguren was born in 1948 in Madrid, Spain. She started her professional training in 1980s with Nelly Rivkin, an Argentinean artist, member of the group called "the Graphic Voice of Madrid". Throughout those years Mercedes took active part in the life of the Spanish capital´s artistic circle and had the opportunity to meet some of the most prominent painters of the time, such as Cristóbal Toral, Menchu Gal, Carmen Peña, Mercedes Salís and Eduardo Úrculo.
In mid 1990s, after her artistic exploratory voyage to New York, the artwork of Mercedes Carreras got inhibited by this newly-born expressionist language, the insatiability for colors grew stronger, their shades became more vibrant and illuminating, her brush strokes gained dynamics, freedom and character, and her canvas started to serve as space for experimentation. All these features together with the innate sense of taste and harmony, the ability to see the subtle beauty of things, and the courage to combine various techniques have now come to define her inimitable artistic style.
Among the things that have to be especially highlighted in the work of Mercedes Carreras is her exceptional manipulation of colors, those color combinations that while being risky and powerful create a harmonized balance in her paintings. That alongside her technique, which is a result of some unique innate intuition, contribute to spontaneity, genuineness, and the untouched purity of her work.
Daniel J. Ukría
Madrid
