Personal Picks: Laura Ballesteros

Personal Picks is a new format where someone from our team selects four artworks that resonate with them on a personal level. From intimate favorites to unexpected discoveries, each selection offers an individual, behind-the-scenes glimpse into the gallery’s evolving universe—one artwork at a time.

Next up: Laura Ballesteros. As Gallery Manager of Palau de Casavells, Laura brings not only her curatorial eye but also a deep personal connection to the Empordà, the land she calls home. Her role at the Palau is more than professional. It’s interwoven with memory, rhythm, and a way of looking at art that mirrors the pace of this place. For Laura, the Palau is not just a gallery; it’s a space where art and life intertwine, where time expands and small, quiet moments reveal their meaning.

In her own words, she reflects on this past year, the artworks that have accompanied her, and the unique dialogue between the Palau, its artists, and the landscape around it:

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I’m from the Empordà, a land where time naturally slows down and life unfolds gently. Here, the most beautiful moments often happen quietly, and to truly appreciate them, you need to pause, breathe, and just be present. It sounds simple, but it’s a rare and precious practice.

This past year, the Palau de Casavells has been that kind of space for me. It arrived at a personal moment of pause, a time where I’ve found myself looking back often — remembering where I come from — while also opening up to everything that might still be ahead. The Palau, in its own way, helped me make room for both: memory and possibility. And that’s something I carry with me now, in how I look at things, and how I look at art.

The artworks I’ve chosen feel like small lapses in time. They each have a kind of stillness that resonates with the rhythm of this place and this year.

The first is by Claudia Valsells, and it’s a special one. Hers was the very first exhibition I worked on at Alzueta, and this piece brings me back to that starting point. Claudia works with confidence, guided both by intuition and years of experience. Her color work is incredibly refined, this painting, in particular, feels inevitable, as if it couldn’t have been painted any other way.

Then there’s Klas Ernflo, whose studio is right next to the Palau. His painting is quiet, the gentle green hues seem to breathe tranquility, and the small boat tucked inside a shed feels like a secret, a quiet life unfolding just out of sight. I’m truly kind of obsessed with the boat.

Alba Suau’s work, currently in the attic of the Palau, comes from her time in our residency. These paintings were born in New Mexico, but they speak fluently with the light and silence of Casavells. The one I’ve chosen feels like a mirage, distant and close at once, a stillness that asks nothing of you but to look and stay with it for a moment.

And finally, Rubén Rodrigo. His paintings almost breathe. If you look closely, it seems to move, colours shift ever so slightly with the light. It’s subtle, like a mood change, like the weather. But it stays with you, long after.Each of these pieces has marked me in a quiet way, and sharing them now feels like sharing part of this past year,  and part of what the Palau has meant to me.
Laura Ballesteros