Mala hierba nunca muere. Blanca Gracia
As part of the 14th edition of Art Nou, Prats Nogueras Blanchard presents Mala hierba nunca muere (Weeds never die) by Blanca Gracia (Madrid, 1989), in its space in Barcelona. The artist imagines a fantastic herbarium made through watercolors and sculptures. Drawing inspiration from 17th-century scientific drawings, she subverts their formal rigidity to offer a critical reflection on language and its ability to name, classify, and dominate.
Gracia reclaims terms historically used pejoratively—especially toward bodies and dissident subjects—and repositions them in a symbolic environment, transforming them into seeds of resistance. Through these weeds, she revalues the marginal and the improper, creating a system of organic and resilient support.
Her forms, at times delicate and at others grotesque, not only allude to an imaginary natural universe but also to a territory of struggle where the rejected reappears, strengthens, and claims its place. Because no matter how many times they are uprooted, these weeds always grow back, taller and stronger.
Blanca Gracia develops an artistic practice that moves between watercolor, animation, and installation, creating dreamlike worlds inhabited by hybrid figures, fantastic creatures, and landscapes with an archaic resonance. Her work draws inspiration from children’s stories, medieval bestiaries, classical myths, and fantasy literature, constructing an imaginary that overflows rationality to delve into the magical and symbolic.
