the photographer Ouka Leelewho died this Tuesday about to turn 65, was one of the eclectic spirits of the Madrid scene by standing out with his work of painted photographs in what came to be called “postmodernity”.
Barbara Allende Gil de Biedma, known as Ouka Lele, burst onto the Madrid scene in the early 1980s with her colorized watercolor photos. She was one of the protagonists of the Madrid scene and became a benchmark in contemporary art, for which she received the National Photography Award in 2005.
I was born on Madrid On June 29, 1957, within a family of the upper bourgeois Bilbao, the Allende de Neguri. his father was Gabriel Allende Mazu, a prestigious architect in love with painting; the his mother, Victoria Gil de Biedmapoet’s sister Jaime Gil de Biedma. The artist was also a second cousin of the political Hope Aguirre.
Ouka Leele studied in it Sacred Heart School of Madridwhere he was imbued with mysticism and later in the Montealto (related to Opus Dei). From a very young age she wrote poetry and painted -the first camera was given to her in her First Communion but she did not use it-.
I studied drawing at academia Orsiniwith the idea of enrolling in the Faculty of Fine Arts, but in the end he did not get to enter the University. At the age of 19, she decided to pick up the camera because the boyfriend she had at the time forbade her to paint, as she told Efeminista in an interview in 2019.
Some of his photographs were included in the book ‘Beginning’ (1976), which brought together nine young photographers with a future. He also managed to get his works to appear in specialized magazines in the category of ‘Zoom’ o ‘new lens’.
That same year he met two people who were going to be key in his life, Ceesepe and Jos Alfonso Morera Ortiz, El Hortelano, two young people dedicated to the ‘underground’ comic. Although he first maintained a closer relationship with Ceesepethen she would be married to El Hortelano for a few years.
In 1978 the three friends settled in Barcelona for three years. It was there that she got the idea to paint the pictures of him.
‘Star’ magazine, a mythical publication within the “underground” world, asked her for a color photo for the cover and, as she preferred black and white and never used color, she decided on a very original solution; Taking old postcards from the turn of the century as a source of inspiration, she retouched her works by hand with strong-colored watercolors, endowing the image with surprising strength.
Ouka Leele was the name that El Hortelano chose for an invented star and that she liked. In 1979, with that name, he signed for the first time all the works of his first individual exhibition, in the Spectrum gang from Barcelona.
‘hairdressers’ was the generic name of the sample, a daring madness with a marked influence. In 1980 she collaborated on the script, editing, photography, production and interpretation of the video ‘Color’, from El Hortelano. Six years later she would appear again as a cabaret singer in the short film that Ceesepe directed in Madrid and entitled ‘The brute’.
After overcoming health problems due to lymphoma at the age of 22, the success of Ouka Leele awoke with the so-called “movida” in Madrid and she was chosen as a faithful representative of what was called “postmodernity”. Her works fit perfectly with the eclectic spirit of that artistic movement.
His work evolves and surprises the critics and the public in each new show. The strong “garish” colors of his first works softened, the interiors ceased to be a constant in his work and he went abroad with his particular gaze to portray forests and plants. His works are located halfway between painting and photography, they are abstract paintings where composition is as important as color.
In 1987, the Spanish Museum of Contemporary Art (MEAC) He dedicated a retrospective to her that collected the ten years of work of this photographer who one day in June of that same year managed to paralyze traffic throughout the center of Madrid to be able to make her great mural, ‘The Cibeles lions’, sponsored by City Hall. That same year she was present at the Sao Paulo Biennial.
Then came his first individual book: ‘Nature alive, dead nature’ and the catalog of the retrospective exhibition held at the Spanish Museum of Contemporary Art.
He also participated in several editions of the arc art fairheld in Madrid, the first in 1988.
In 1992 it opens in London an individual exhibition of 42 pieces, a retrospective of hand-colored photographs, and in 1993 he participated in Madrid in the Fair for Liberation of Commercial Spaces towards Art FLECHA 93sponsored by the group of artists ‘With Love’ to give an opportunity to those who are just starting out.
In 1998 he exhibited a retrospective of his work of seventy photographs from 1978-98, at the PhotoEspaa 98 international festival in Madrid.
In 2004 he participated in the ‘Fashion Art’ project, a collection of costumes by designer Manuel Fernndez decorated with original paintings by different artists that was presented in several Latin American countries.
The following year he published a book of poems and drawings entitled “Floraleza” and premiered a documentary directed by Rafael Gordon, “Ouka Leele’s gaze”. This film is inspired by “My Metaphysical Garden”, a 300-meter mural.
National Photography Award 2005, Madrid Culture Award 2003 in the Photography section, his work is hung on the walls of galleries and museums in Paris, London, Tokyo and New York.
In 2010 the documentary “La Mirada” (2009) about his work and directed by Rafael Gordon was nominated for best documentary feature film at the Goya Awards. There are two hours of a documentary film, which portrays Ouka Leele almost like in a confession diary.
That same year he received the Isabel Ferrer award and in 2012, the Silver medal from the Community of Madrid and the National Photography Award, Piedad Isla, from the Palencia Provincial Council.
Leele was also recognized for her commissioned portraits, and she has not hesitated to accept doing it for the talk show hosts of the “Slvame” program.
In 2014, the photographer designed the poster for the exhibition that the EFE Agency organizes on the occasion of its 75th anniversary, merging past, present and future through the lens of her camera while her daughter María Rosenfeldt acts as a model.
That same year he launched the collection “Ouka Leele’s books” and in 2015 the exhibition “Where the light takes me”.
His samples continue year after year. Examples are “Cibachromes” at the Huelva International Photography Festival or “Photo Colectania” in Barcelona.
The artist has identified with the denialists during the coronavirus crisis, stating that “love is the best mask”.
In 2021, together with her daughter and the Picopico firm, they launched a collection of recycled garments or “upcycling” with old robes as raw material. Year in which he participates again in PHotoEspaa with a sample of his early years, at the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid.
According to the criteria of
Know more