Meet Anna Calleja | Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Anna Calleja and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Anna, how do you think about risk?
Within artistic practice, risk and faith are inherit to creative process. The process of making work can be frightening, a leap of faith into the unknown. There are no long-term plans, I don’t know whether my next body of work will be successful or ‘good’ in any sense of the term. Dealing with uncertainty, financially and artistically has been the biggest challenge so far. You have to surrender to the process and have faith that something will happen.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
My practice is a blend between concept and craft. My work is mostly figurative at the moment, drawing on memories, my loved ones and historical/religious narrative tropes to express how I feel in the present moment in the world. I’m currently exploring 3rd personal narration of the self; how social media influences our sense of self, our memory and our relationship to solitude in a world that is so connected. The domestic space has come to signify a place of safety and radical vulnerability, of curated identity where I can play out all of these ideas. I find myself drawn to contradiction and dualities; comfort/pain, past/ present, love/grief, virtual/physical, isolation/connection and how they are inherently intertwined.

I can’t say I’ve ever had long term plans to be an artist as a career. I’ve always loved drawing and making things ever since I was a child. I’m committed to my art practice but assumed I would find a job and work part-time alongside it. In my final year of art school at Falmouth University in the UK, the pandemic hit, and I moved home with my parents for a year and painted towards a solo show which kickstarted me into being a full-time artist. When I’m stuck and feeling uninspired, I often hear Philip Pullman say, ‘Inspiration is the reward for hard work’ and that often helps me to keep going! An artist, Nina Royle once told me to take things 6 months at a time after art school, that has become a mantra of sorts to deal with uncertainty.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
The decisions I’ve made have always been made possible due to other people around me offering their emotional or financial support. My family, friends, collectors, and galleries having faith in my practice has been fundamental in me being able to enter the studio every day. (I am so grateful, Thank you!) I’d like to thank my parents for always being so supportive of me. I’d also like to thank Sophie Gorton and Rohan Harris, family friends of mine. They saw me drawing and painting as a teenager and encouraged me to go to art school and pursue art more seriously. They’ve been a home away from home throughout the past 5 years, thank you!

Website: www.annacalleja.co.uk

Instagram: @annacallejapaints

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/annacallejapaints