Within the exhibition line “Encuentros con la Colección”, the Martínez Guerricabeitia Room will show a selection of recent artworks from the Valencian artist Carmen Grau (1948) who, since her vast exhibition of 2001 at the Almodí from Valencia, had been a bit absent from the Valencian artistic panorama.

Carmen Grau began her artistic journey at her father’s studio, José Grau, a renowned Valencian artist and illustrator. She studied at the Valencian School for Fine Arts where, once it became a Faculty, she obtained her degree and a doctorate, for which she has been full time university professor in Paint until 2018.

Throughout her long career, she has shined for a constant pictorial experimentation, expanding the expressive possibilities of the medium by using wood as support as well as the incorporation of recycled materials and found objects in a narrative inspired by literature, history and personal memory.

But Carmen Grau has not limited her formal research, as her paintings, collages and assemblies usually have critical content making one reflect on society about the topics that have worried her at each particular moment as an artist and a woman. 

This social inclination picked the interest of Jesús Martínez Guerricabeitia, who acquired one of her paintings for the collection which finally donated to the Universitat de València, and which now reunites with a wide group of her work.

The exhibition has been prepared by art historian José Martín, in charge of the Martínez Guerricabeitia Collection and professor of the Art History Department of the Universitat de València.

On the occasion of this exhibition, the monography of Carmen Grau has been published. Vida y pintura, written by José Martín and Sebastián Gómez.