TOÑI ARMENTEROS

Dialogue between hero women by Toñi Armenteros

Toñi Armenteros is an emerging artist from Spain who evokes ideas of intensity, sensuality, and introspection inspired by the female figure, nudity, the warmth of skin, and the tenderness of muscles. With her abstract-figurative portraits, often hinting more than showing, she achieves an effect of sensual voluptuousness, of repressed longing and desire, and of visual pleasure.

Her works are elegant both for their lines and for their concepts. They portray images that ignite the imagination and transport us to our own fantasies: those hidden inside us that materialize before our eyes when we view these works for the first time.

Her childhood and most of her life has been spent in Torrejón de Ardoz (Madrid), beginning to paint at the Cultural Centre there. Currently, she divides her passion for painting with teaching, working as an English and Spanish language teacher at a public school.

‘It was in 2017 when I painted my first portrait. It was something that I always wanted to do: express the glance, the feelings, and the emotions that radiate from our innermost being and that sometimes, shiftily, betray us. With my paintings, I try to use art as a communication tool with a social purpose. I try to express my feelings and emotions in my paintings through colour spots and loose brushstrokes. In my recent paintings, I enjoy mixing different materials and techniques, experimenting with the magic of fluids and pouring [and] getting more abstract-figurative effects.’

From fantasy…to reality

With "Dialogue between hero women," I have built a story that starts from fiction: from those hero women that we all admire, to real women that must fight for their goals. They also must overcome many stereotypes and obstacles, both social and mental, to achieve them.

In the first stage, I used different textures to focus on the portrait´s skin. What I want to stand out is the human condition and the beauty despite time and worries. The spectator will see the strength and the audacity with a sensual touch in each portrait.

In some phases, I go back to using oil in my paintings before jumping back to reality again, but I ultimately choose spontaneous, fun, and colourful portraits in the end. In these portraits, the lines disappear slightly and are more of a suggestion; the glance is what attaches us to the story and to reality.

The aim of this collection is to remember all those women who are not famous despite their important role in history, such as Clara Campoamor, Amelia Earhart, Marie Curie, and Frida Kahlo. They are accompanied by fictional superheroines, such as Catwoman, Storm, and Wonderwoman.

And why ‘hero women’ and not heroines?

She has chosen to title her work using a term that she has created herself, explaining that she preferred 'hero women' over ‘heroines’ since the suffix -ina in the Spanish word heroína diminishes the thing to which it refers. That is why she refers to these personalities as héroas in her language so that it is the feminine of hero rather than 'heroine,’ a term that also applies to narcotics.

Although they had a very important role in history, all the women in this exhibition need to be given greater visibility for their achievements and successes. The goal of the artist is to build a society and future without differences or discrimination based on gender.

Upcoming appointments

Nowadays, the artist is working to incorporate landscapes in her new projects, such as "Don Quixote goes to Ithaca" and "My journey in time," which will debut in October and is inspired by the footprints of Santa Teresa de Jesús, among other designs.

In addition, she is involved with a group of artists in a project about the geniuses of Spanish literature, such as Federico García Lorca. It will be released soon.