Interview on the Christopher Ryan Podcast (starts at 3 min 30 sec)
Because of my background as a special effects painter in film, I became fascinated by the process of decay and the development of texture and colour in natural materials. In my work I try to focus on the unattainable, on a feeling or a moment in time where emotion vies with consciousness. The process is never-ending and the result always elusive but beckons me to the next canvas.
A raíz de mi carrera como pintora de efectos especiales en el cine, me he fascinado por lo podrido y el desarrollo de la textura y del color de los materiales en la naturaleza. En mi obra intento atrapar lo efímero, un sentimiento o un momento en el tiempo donde la emoción lucha contra la conciencia. Este proceso es interminable y el resultado siempre elusivo pero me atrae al próximo lienzo.
A cause de mon passé comme peintre des effets spéciaux pour le cinéma, je me suis fascinée par la pourriture et le développement de la texture et des couleurs dans la nature. Dans mes oeuvres, j´ essaie de concentrer sur l´ inaccessible, sur un sentiment ou un moment dans l´ univers où l´ émotion se bat contre la conscience. Ce procès est interminable et le résultat devient toujours éphémère, pourtant ça me lance vers la prochaine toile.
Gym Halama was born in London to an english father and polish mother. There she completed primary and secondary education at the French Lycée.
Since moving to Granada province in Spain in 1995, Gym Halama has deployed her considerable skills as a special effects artist, producing a body of work covering many subjects and themes: one of these series consists of large canvases of randomly stacked empty food crates, evoking an anonymity by those who consume and waste in a world made fragile by over-population, careless use of resources and running out of time.
She has also been delving into childhood memories, the effect on her at age eight, after the death of her alcoholic mother; also producing a series of light-boxes created from X-rays of her skull after a near fatal accident, representing life, death and memory.
In 2011, Gym Halama wrote a book of 50 short stories about her life, accompanied by 50 of her paintings, called “Zig Zag, Flashbacks of a Painter”
Contact
gym@gymhalama.com • Tel: (+34) 669 741 859
Videos
Gym Halama in conversation with Youth (2020 & 2021) – South London Arts Lab
