Monica Chavarria

Mònica Chavarria (Barcelona, 1972) was born into a family of artists — a sculptor father and a ceramist mother. She began working with clay in her parents' workshop and started helping them with professional work from an early age.

She graduated in Fine Arts in Barcelona, specializing in sculpture, while also taking courses at the Escola Massana, deepening her knowledge of sculpture, engraving, drawing, modelling and casting techniques. She has worked with many materials — terracotta, iron, stone, concrete, plaster, wood and resin — expanding her knowledge through specialist courses: forging and welding iron at the Guild of Metalworkers of Catalonia, relief sculpture on an Erasmus course in Delphi (Greece), and stone carving at the International Sculpture Centre in Pero Pinheiro (Portugal).

She has always worked in art — creating her own pieces, taking commissions, and teaching. Her sculptures often start from figuration and the reality around us, though some of her work takes a more abstract character; she never stops observing nature, believing it one of the most beautiful sources for artistic creation. Her pieces have been exhibited in Spain, Greece, Portugal, Japan and Brazil, where she lived for six years teaching at a private university. For the last 20 years she has taught modelling, casting and volume at Escola Massana, where she feels most professionally fulfilled.