The 'Iberian Ladies' by Sómnica Bernabeu Travel to Their Ancestral Land

The 'Iberian Ladies' by Sómnica Bernabeu transcend mere brushstrokes. Each canvas captures a multitude of stories, family Sundays visiting museums, hours in her studio reviewing thousands of documents... And also, all the passion and effort invested in depicting through the brush the reality of an entire era.

After their debut at the La Alcudia site, the Alicante artist brings her 'Iberian Ladies' to light with an exhibition at the Villena Museum (MUVI), which will be inaugurated this Wednesday, November 18th at 8 PM. Thus, a dual desire is fulfilled: to tour her canvases and bring them to her grandfather's homeland.

The exhibition can be visited until February 2025, and it is on her large canvases that Sómnica Bernabeu's reinterpretations of the Iberian ladies can be admired, such as the Lady of Baza or the Lady of Elche, linked to mythological and social icons that articulated civilization, including instruments, utensils, or mythological animals like the wolf and the griffin.

These connections allow the author to address the concepts of freedom, resilience, courage, fertility, and rebirth, from her unique pictorial style. The works are made with natural pigments, along with oil and charcoal, a technique developed by Bernabeu as a tribute to the materials used in the Iberian era.

Sómnica Bernabeu highlights in the exhibition the active leadership exercised by the Iberian ladies in their clan, where they acted as a link with the gods, and explains that one of the objectives of this series is to turn it into a "seedbed to claim Iberian art in the province of Alicante as the only truly indigenous style."

The exhibition is developed in collaboration between the Villena University Headquarters and the local Town Hall. The inaugural event will be attended by Sómnica Bernabeu; the Councillor for Culture and Education of the Villena Town Hall, María Server; the Vice-Rector for International Relations and Development Cooperation of the UA; Rosa María Martínez, and the Director of the Villena Headquarters, Esther Perales.