Kissing in Europe
An interview with Nuria Pujalte about kissing, relationships, and living and working as a young painter in Europe
Nuria Pujalte is a Mexican painter based in London
“This is going to sound so dramatic, but many of my paintings I created after breakups,” says Nuria. The two of us are calling over Whatsapp to talk about an ongoing series of paintings she is working on, dubbed “The Kissing Series.”
The works take us through different phases and places in Nuria’s life, bound together by a frankness about her feelings that becomes apparent immediately.
“I have always loved art and studied art history and music in college, but I never really considered myself an artist or painter until about four years ago.” Nuria sent me a folder with pictures of her work to use as reference material. “The first painting of the Kissing Series was not about kissing at all; it’s the glacier one.”
A little confused, I scroll through the folder looking for a landscape scene. I am greeted by four-eyed self-portraits, and a giant Nuria roaming a miniature forest.
“The blue one,” she adds, “I’m hugging a mountain.” That’s when I see the painting she’s referring to: an anxious girl is holding an iceberg.
“I made this painting after a breakup and wanted to visualize what I was feeling. That’s where the surrealist vibes come in: I felt like the other person was cold and I was left alone.”
It was around this time that Nuria was studying graphic design in Barcelona, which didn’t really satisfy her creativity. “The only class I loved a lot was the painting class, so I continued to go down that road.”
“With the Kissing Series, I hoped to deal with my desire for a beautiful relationship. Like the electricity you feel when love is new and you kiss. I sort of became obsessed with this part of relationships.” Nuria continued creating new works, even venturing into using different techniques to tell her story.
“My mentor suggested that I’d take up weaving too. It’s very meditative.” And so, the Kissing Series expanded into the realm of tapestries.
“The life that I’d love to lead would be doing art residencies around the world.”
There are many upsides about moving around, she says, like getting inspired by different people and experiences. But it also poses challenges for a painter. Nuria moved to London during the COVID-19 pandemic and was unable to bring most of her materials.
“I needed a change of scenery. This is much easier in Europe than in other places. When I was living in Canada, travel was expensive and you’d have to travel far to find something new.” In Europe, she explains, going to another country is easy and the regional differences can be very apparent.
Having arrived in London without her materials and not yet having found an art studio to work from, Nuria decided to give her iPad a chance, leading to the latest iteration of the Kissing Series.
Both Nuria, the Kissing Series, and her methods continue to evolve, one place, or relationship, at a time.
