Estelle Garcia Blanco
© Mathilde van Nuffel
Textile and feather artist, Estelle Garcia Blanco (1995), combines installations and sculptural paintings. Her work explores the figure of the bird, both as a poetic image and as a symbol of ecological disaster. She focuses on feathers as a symbolic material, capturing the movement of life, bearing witness to the wild, and representing death. Her work evoke what no longer exists but leaves behind a trace, a memory. Through her practice, she bridges the animal and human worlds, blending feathers and textiles to reveal the tension between these two realms.
Her works repurpose everyday objects—feathers from second-hand pillows, textile fragments—transforming them into witnesses of our time, where recycling becomes an act of memory and resistance. Feathers, delicately inserted or compressed, intertwine with the mineral shapes of plaster, questioning the boundaries between nature and artifice, between lightness and weight.
This work, both intimate and universal, invites reflection on how we inhabit the world and the memories we leave behind. It is an attempt to capture the ephemeral and to evoke the often-invisible traces that our actions imprint on the landscape.
She is one of the winners of the Espronceda Prize delivered by the Royal Academy of Fine Arts and laureate of the VOCATIO funds, patronized by BNP Paribas Fortis. She also won the Prize of Excellence from the City of Brussels upon graduating.
EXHIBITIONS
2025 Galerie Espace-D. Etterbeek, BE
3 - 13 April, Duo show
2025 Chez Olivia, Project Room. Saint-Gilles, BE
20 March - 26 April, Collective show
2023 « EfemeraInfinte », Espronceda Institute of Art and Culture. Barcelona, SP
27 July - 2 August, Duo show
2023 « Ruta Art Nou », Barcelona emerging Art festival. Barcelona, ES
26 July - 2 August, Collective Show
2022 « Dénouement » Patinoire Royale, Galerie Valérie Bach. Bruxelles, BE
2 - 4 June, Collective show
2021 Espace Vanderborght. Brussels, BE
5 - 10 June, Collective show
ART RESIDENCIES
July, 2023 Espronceda Institute of Art and Culture. Barcelona, SP
Octobre-decembre, 2021 Clinique Vestimentaire - Jeanne Vicerial. Paris, FR
ART TALK
Juillet, 2023 Artist talk at Espronceda Institute of Art and Culture. Barcelona, SP
PRIZES
2023 Vocatio Prize. Under the mentorship of Catherine de Braekeleer, patronized by BNP Paribas Fortis. Brussels, BE
2022 Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles Prize - aides au revues littéraire ; pour la revue Papier peint Mauvais drap. Brussels, BE
2022 Excellence Prize of the City of Brussels. Brussels, BE
2022 ArBA-EsA – Espronceda Prize : Artistic residency at Espronceda Institute of Art and Culture
Under the mentorship of Savina Tarsitano. During July 2023 in Barcelona, SP
DIPLOMAS
2022 Master Textile Design, Royal Academy of Fine Arts from Brussels, BE
2020 CAP Plumassière (Apprentice Maison Lemarié, Chanel). Paris, FR
2019 CAP Fleuriste en fleurs artificielles (Apprentice Maison Lemarié, Chanel). Paris, FR
2016 Bachelor Stylisme-modélisme, Haute Ecole Francisco Ferrer. Brussels, BE
2016 École supérieure Felicidad Duce, Erasmus. Barcelona, SP