Natalia Wróbel: Studio Conversations in Spain

Natalia Wróbel in her studio. San Sebastián, Spain, 2025.

Last week I had the opportunity to visit Natalia Wróbel in her studio located in Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain. This has become an annual trip for me since she relocated to Spain from California in 2022. While discussing her artwork and upcoming shows, we came to realize that we have been working together for over ten years - an incredible milestone for our partnership as gallerist and artist. Natalia was the second artist we brought onto our roster in 2015 when the gallery first opened in Boston, MA. I knew of her work because we attended the same university, although we did not know each other well during our time at school. It's wonderful for me to reflect on the past ten years of working together, from countless studio visits, exhibitions, debuts of groundbreaking work, commissions (even one of our largest to date). Both of our lives have significantly changed over the past decade, but while our lives and the world around us evolve - art stays steady.

Abigail Ogilvy in the studio with Natalia Wróbel, San Sebastián, 2025.

Natalia's work has grown and evolved over the years, and I recently came across an Alice Neel quote that made me think about her work specifically: "When painting or writing are good, it's taken right out of life itself to my mind, and put into the work." Natalia's success has been driven by her constant pursuit of new places and ideas, all the while her daily life is interwined in the resulting paintings.

When we first met, Natalia was focused on a series of work related to portals. Her color palette then, and today, were based on her mood and intution - mixing paint as a physical act of meditation to prepare her for moving the brush across the canvas. These deeply textured paintings evoked different reactions from the viewer, allowing them to have their own spiritual, emotional, and intellectual connection with the artwork. Later in 2017 when Wróbel was selected for inclusion at the Berlin Art Institute residency program in Germany, the work evolved. Spaces became more open and colors became darker. The intensity of the residency meant we were not able to be in touch during her time there, but rather at the end when she could reflect on the residency in full. The new perspectives of her professors and the surrounding landscape changed the work, but also her mood was darker. This all found its way into the work. Afterwards, returning to her partner who was living in Amsterdam at the time, the paintings brightened - influenced by the abundance of flowers outside of their apartment and at the street markets - the influence of Germany still on her mind, but again life impacted the art.

Natalia Wróbel, In The Beginning, 2021, Oil on canvas, 30 x 40 in.

In 2020, while the world locked down for the COVID Pandemic, Wróbel prepared to welcome her first child. Now located in California nearby her family, the paintings flowed naturally from her brush. Forms became rounder - the movement often resembling vibrations, the brushtrokes connecting from one to the next. The energy of this new person growing within brought new life to the work. In 2021, during the first year of motherhood the titles remind us of how life begins, such as: "In the Beginning" and "Miracle of Being." Time both stops and moves quickly with a newborn and young child, and Natalia felt that in her work.

Natalia Wróbel, new painting, 2025.

Today, the new paintings embody everyday life and the profoundness of simple moments. A new painting in the studio capturing a recent family trip, driving home from France, when they found themselves in an immediate storm with large amounts of wind and hail. The suddenness of the storm caused nearby cars to crash and skid off the road all before their eyes, while Wróbel's partner was able to move them to a safe place until the brief storm had passed. The moment was intense yet hasty, and the painting captures the feeling a dangerous yet fleeting moment.

Natalia Wróbel, new painting, 2025.

Another painting took her months to complete, but then only a few days to finalize when the right balance of tension and harmony found the brush. While the work has evolved, the process remains steady. This quote was written in our 2016 artist spotlight on Natalia Wróbel: "Every stroke captures her journey from beginning to end; the movement of her arms and the intricatedance of her process are rendered in the final product."

In working with many of my artists over the last ten years of Abigail Ogilvy Gallery, we share both professional and private moments. The work ethic required to maintain a studio practice is not common knowledge to our visitors and collectors - but something that I see on a daily basis. I look forward to sharing Natalia's newest works this summer in Los Angeles in our group exhibition (May - June 2025) and in a two-person presentation alongside Elizabeth King Stanton debuting in November 2025. Natalia has another exciting change coming this month, as she welcomes her second child to her family - it will be wonderful to see how the paintings develop later this year.