Goya Torres is a visual/street-artist and muralist originally born in Mexico, based in Newcastle, NSW, Australia. Her practice moves towards blurring the separation line between fine arts, street-art and illustration in order to develop a visual contemporary language that encapsulates reality nowadays.
Strongly influenced by Brett Whiteley, Francis Bacon and David Alfaro Siqueiros figurative work, her expression travels through painting, public art, mural work and printmaking. Drawing is the skeleton of her work, which leads into the refined experience developed by painting and printing, and finally flourishes reinforced by content and story-telling. This results in a comprehensive body of work that touches strong points of self-consciousness in the maker and the viewer, empowering the viewer to create their own story reflected in the artwork, assimilate it and become an active entity in the space and time that the artwork has brought it to. Goya Torres responds to local and global quests with creation in order to relieve them, extract their deep attributes into a piece that empowers peoples spirit, communities and therefore life itself.
Primarily a self-taught prolific artist, Goya Torres artistically draws inspiration from her heritage, traditions and culture, as well as nature, street-art and pop surrealism. She predominately uses a mix traditional media such as oils, acrylics, spray-paint and printmaking techniques on canvas, paper and wood. She has also painted fiberglass sculptures for public art trails and murals for various street-art festivals internationally, with 25 murals under her belt and counting.
Goya Torres has been involved in group exhibitions, live-painting events, street-art festivals, mural and public art projects in Australia, Mexico, Latino-america, USA, United Kingdom and Europe since 2012. Some of her artwork is now part of private collections in Sydney, Melbourne and Mexico. She has been sponsored by aerosol brands such as NBQ and Molotow.
In the past, she participated in the Wild! Rhino project organized by Taronga Zoo where she painted a life size rhino sculpture in order to raise awareness about the rhino extinction which was exhibited in Manly Corso and then auctioned for $10,000 AUS with all earnings going towards saving the rhino from extinction in Africa.
She recently came back to Australia from her two year residency in the United Kingdom where she participated in the Street-Art Festivals: Meeting of Styles in Pristina Kosovo, Gran Canaria Spain and Budapest Hungary; and the first Beeston Street-Art Festival in Nottinghamshire UK. Also she painted a mural and judge for the yearly Street-Art Festival Exhibition at Surface Gallery in Nottingham and another one at the Printing Walls Street-Art Festival in Torrefarrera Cataluna Spain. She was also was part of a six months Young Artist Residency project Studio 22 at ArtSpace in Portsmouth, Hampshire United Kingdom.
Goya Torres currently has a studio in Newcastle, NSW Australia.