Cinta Vidal

Multidisciplinary artist Cinta Vidal illustrates new perceptions of city landscapes by detaching and reimaging the architectural formations that function as the backdrops of life. For Vidal, depicting macro and micro levels of inverted apartment buildings and city structures illustrate the various ways the world is experienced by a mass population. Having grown up with an affinity for drawing, Vidal became an apprentice at Taller de’Escenografia Castells Planas, one of the most prestigious scenography ateliers in Spain and across Europe. There, she learned the trades of scenography, painting large-scale scenes and settings for theatre and opera backdrops. Utilizing this experience, Vidal uses acrylic paint on canvas to create what she describes as her “un-gravity constructions.” She paints each artwork with close attention to detail, fully realizing each structure and the unfolding scenes within. Vidal’s combination of saturation, detail, and balance work together to allow the viewer’s gaze to absorb these various and often intersecting viewpoints.

Cinta Vidal’s architecturally-inspired paintings encapsulate the concrete formations that enclose the day-to-day turbulence experienced at the personal and community level. Too often people are focused on individuality instead of commonality, leaving little room to observe the surrounding hustle and bustle of city-life. Vidal challenges viewers to look beyond the self and broaden their perceptions of the physical and divided structures humans frequently occupy. By depicting individuality within an arrangement of occupied spaces, she captures the conflict between the multifaceted nature in which society experiences the world, internal perceptions of reality, and the inflexible architecture people inhabit. Vidal’s unrelenting yet inverted constructions symbolize the “mental structures” of the individual. Thus, Vidal’s unconventional portrayal of metropolitan architecture elevates these self-revolving structures, reminding viewers that they are not alone and to pay closer attention to the many pathways of life existing amidst the masses.

Cinta Vidal went to art school at Escola Massana, Barcelona, Spain. She currently lives and works in a studio located above her family’s toy store in Cardedeu, a small town near Barcelona, Spain. Vidal has collaborated on large format backdrops for European and international operas and theater companies. Today, Vidal continues to paint large-scale backdrops in her art practice, while experimenting on new art projects ranging from public murals to made-to-color illustration. Vidal has exhibited paintings in Barcelona, Los Angeles, Hong Kong, and Melbourne and currently has murals installed in Long Beach, Hong Kong, Barcelona, Honolulu, and San Francisco.