Laura Pintado

Laura Martínez Pintado was born in 1987 in Benavente, in the province of Zamora, and studied fine arts at the University of Granada before a master's degree in art at the University of Seville. Identity is the core of her work: faces rendered in black and white to suggest a split between inner and outer self, overlaid with coded or automatic writing that acts as a screen between sitter and viewer. She has named Shirin Neshat, Jaume Plensa, Francis Bacon and Marlene Dumas as references, and draws on Islamic culture, the veil in particular.

In August 2015 she showed a series of veiled women's gazes at the Casa de Cultura La Encomienda in Benavente, the same summer she was listed among the painters of the third Art Aero Rap festival in nearby La Bañeza. She later took part in ArtJaén in 2022 and, according to her online profiles, now works from Tarifa.