The largely figurative works of Celia Mora (b. 1991, Madrid) seek to achieve a sense of presence and self- awareness by playing with composition and form so as to confuse the gaze and break perception through illusion.

Mora uses models, usually those she has emotional relationships with, interfering, manipulating and controlling their posture and presentation - in this way, painting becomes an act of control. The subject of her recent degree show works is her partner - by portraying him in performative, playful, and almost condescending poses, she teases out and inverts the traditional power dynamics of men and women, painter and muse. Hombre Florero exposes the subject at his most intimate, and is a play on the stereotype of the ‘flower woman’ - a pejorative Spanish term for a female role with no benefit to the production other than her beauty.

Mora previously studied Fine Arts at the Complutense University of Madrid (2013). She was awarded an Erasmus Scholarship to study at the University of Arts London (2017), and the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation grant to pursue her studies at RCA (2022). Mora’s work has been widely shown and awarded across Spain and the UK, and her work has been acquired by private collections including the Four Seasons Hotel Madrid. In 2023 she will join the Turps Art School.