BIO
Lídia Vives is a visual artist and fine art photographer in Barcelona. Her work draws from pictorial tradition, symbolic storytelling and contemporary fashion aesthetics, creating carefully constructed images that go beyond surface beauty to reveal hidden layers of meaning.
She is known for embedding subtle narrative details and recurring symbolic elements within her photographs, inviting viewers to slow down and engage with the image beyond its first reading. These visual cues have become a distinctive part of her artistic language.
Influenced by Renaissance and Baroque painting, Vives balances the timeless and the surreal, often working with staged environments, custom-made props and self-portraiture. Her practice combines meticulous art direction with a strong sense of atmosphere and visual cohesion.
Alongside her personal artistic work, she collaborates with brands, media and institutions on editorial, cultural and commercial projects, always maintaining a concept-driven approach and a consistent visual identity.
Her work has been exhibited in museums, galleries and international art fairs, and featured in publications such as Esquire. She has collaborated with institutions and brands including RTVE and Penguin Random House, and her works are held in private collections worldwide
ARTIST STATEMENT
Between the classical and the contemporary
My work exists in the space between inherited visual traditions and contemporary culture. I construct photographic worlds where classical references coexist with fashion, symbolism and surreal undertones, creating images that feel suspended in time.
Photography became my way of painting with light. Rather than capturing reality as it is, I use the medium to build scenes — carefully staged environments shaped by composition, color and narrative intention. Each image is conceived as a crafted universe, designed to seduce the eye before revealing something deeper.
I am particularly interested in the act of looking. I like to establish a quiet dialogue with the viewer through a visual game of discovery. Hidden details — usually bees — appear repeatedly in my work, inviting closer observation and prolonged attention. The bee, for instance, carries both personal and historical meaning for me, bridging memory, symbolism and art history.
Most of my works are staged photographs, created through an immersive and obsessive process. From an initial idea or sketch, I build the set, shape the character, direct the scene and later transform it through post-production — sometimes digitally, sometimes through painted interventions. I do not tell stories literally; I prefer metaphor, exaggeration and suggestion. Color — especially red — and composition are central to my practice, and every element within the frame has a purpose.
Although deeply personal, my work seeks a universal resonance. I am drawn to themes such as identity, intimacy, the female gaze and the symbolic. I believe individual experiences often mirror collective emotions, and I hope my images resonate visually and emotionally — that someone might see them and think: “There’s something here I’ve felt too, even if I couldn’t put it into words.”
That moment is when a photograph becomes more than an image — it becomes a connection.
For collaborations, commissions or art and editorial inquiries
If you’d like to work together, or have a proposal related to my artistic or commercial work, feel free to get in touch.