Olga Esther 'Bad Cats' Print Available

Artist: Olga Esther
Title: Bad Cats
Medium: Giclee Print
Size: 16 x 22 Inches
Edition: 40
Price: $150

Olga Esther is a Spanish painter and illustrator who creates a dreamlike universe where princesses refuse to be saved. Born in Valencia on 2 January 1975, she grew up during the final days of Franco’s regime and later studied Fine Arts at the Polytechnic University of Valencia. Her canvases and works on paper are populated by wide-eyed girls, weeping birds and masked royalty who stare out at the viewer with equal parts innocence and defiance. Using delicate layers of oil on wood panel, she builds soft flesh against flat, jewel-toned backgrounds so that each figure appears to glow from within.

The artist’s recurring motif of reluctant princesses serves as a gentle but pointed critique of traditional gender roles. Lace collars, crowns and flower wreaths appear only to be undercut by tears, blood drops or a frog who “kills himself because he is ignored,” turning familiar fairy-tale imagery into quiet acts of feminist rebellion. The symbolism is further enriched by medieval and religious references sacred hearts, halos and ornate textiles that suggest both reverence and resistance to inherited narratives.

Exhibitions at Thinkspace, Beinart Gallery and Urban Nation have carried her work from Spain to the United States and Germany, while awards such as third place in the 2018 Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize have cemented her place in contemporary pop-surrealism. When she is not painting, Esther shares process videos and sketches with her 47,000 Instagram followers, inviting them into a world where vulnerability is strength and every princess is her own saviour.