RocioSantaCruz presents the exhibition Ouka Leele : Barcelona 1978-1980.
Ouka Leele, the artistic name of Bárbara Allende Gil de Biedma (Madrid, 1957-2022), was a key figure in contemporary Spanish photography and one of the most representative visual artists of the Transition. Her work as a poet is original and sensitive, and forms an integral part of her creative context.
The RocioSantaCruz gallery, thanks to the involvement of María Rosenfeldt, the artist’s daughter and head of the Ouka Leele archive, brings together and presents for the first time in an exhibition format a group of photographs from the series Peluquería and other works the artist made during her time in Barcelona. All this stems from the study of more than 600 negatives and contact sheets from the period, many of them previously unseen. To this material is added unpublished texts and poems by Ouka Leele that form part of the archive of the magazine Ajoblanco.
Throughout her career, Ouka Leele maintained a close relationship with Barcelona, where she lived from August 1978 until 1980. It was in this city that she created her most important series, Peluquería, which is part of the permanent collection of the MNCARS and occupies a room in its recent exhibition.
In 1979, under the title Peluquería, and in what was the artist’s first exhibition, the series was shown for the first time at the Espectrum gallery in Barcelona. It was later hosted by the Redor space in Madrid, a clandestine art venue during Francoism.
Star magazine published photographs by Ouka Leele on several occasions; they appeared on the cover or back cover of issues no. 43, 46, 48 and 52.
It was also the period in which she became associated with members of the magazine El Rrollo Emascarado, such as Nazario and Montesol, and with other key figures of the Catalan art scene, including Mariscal, Pepichek, Pepe Ribas and Sergi Pàmies, as well as with members of the Madrid Movida living in Barcelona, such as El Hortelano and Ceesepe.
During the following years she returned to the city periodically. Her portraits of Miquel Barceló, Ariadna Gil, Juan Manuel Serrat, La Fura dels Baus, among others, date from this period. So do the texts on photography for the magazine Ajoblanco, which were never published.
Also in Barcelona, in 2019, photographs by Ouka Leele were included in La Movida. Crónica de una agitación. 1978-1984, an exhibition held at the Fundación Foto Colectania, co-produced with Les Rencontres d’Arles.
Barcelona, with its cultural vitality and its history of artistic avant-garde, was a key place for the dissemination and consolidation of the work of this innovative artist. There is no doubt that the Catalan cultural scene strengthened her national and international profile. Her presence likewise helped enrich the Barcelona art scene and reinforce cultural links among different Spanish cities in the final decades of the 20th century.
The exhibition at the RocioSantaCruz gallery highlights the Catalan period in the artist’s career. The works in the exhibition reflect the essential features of her visual universe, such as the expressive use of color, symbolic charge and the fusion of photography and painting, always in close connection with Barcelona.
Ouka Leele was the artistic pseudonym of the Spanish photographer Bárbara Allende Gil de Biedma. At the beginning of her career she discovered photography as a means of expressing her artistic sensibility, characterized by a particular intensity and naturalness. It was in Madrid in the 1980s, in the context of the “Movida,” that the artist expressed her interest in a wide variety of artistic disciplines, such as drawing, screen printing, painting and literature, giving rise to a series of photographs labeled “icons of their time.”
In 1982, she received the Spanish Ministry of Culture grant “Ayuda para Artistas Jóvenes,” marking the beginning of her career. The following year, in 1983, she received the ICARO Prize for Visual Arts from Diario 16, in Madrid.
In 1998 she received the runner-up prize in the IV International Photography Competition “Fotogranprix” (Barcelona). In 2002, she was honored with the Plaque of Illustrious Painter from the Association of Spanish Writers and Artists in Madrid. In 2003 she received the First National Bibliophilia Prize for her collaboration on the book “El Cantar de los Cantares del Rey Salomón,” in addition to being selected for prestigious prizes such as the L’Oréal Contemporary Art Prize and the Ángel Painting Awards. In 2004, her contribution to the art world was recognized with the Culture Prize of the Community of Madrid. She was subsequently awarded the National Photography Prize in 2005. Her artistic versatility was demonstrated in 2006 when she received the audience’s first prize for poetry at the Casa del Poeta de Trasmoz in Zaragoza.
The photographer took part three times in the important photography festival Arles. Les rencontres de la photographie, with the festival paying her a posthumous tribute in 2022. She exhibited on several occasions at Les Rencontres d’Arles, and in 2019 her work was the image of the poster that defined that edition’s graphic identity.
Over the following years, she continued to accumulate honors, such as the award for best photographer of the year from Glamour magazine in 2007 and the Medal of Honor at the XI Cairo Biennale in 2008.
In 2010, she received the Pop-Eye Award for her lifetime achievement at the Gran Teatro de Cáceres.
Her work has likewise been recognized, as shown by her receipt of the Award for Best Documentary Feature Film for “La Mirada de Ouka Leele” in 2011 and the Champagne Prize “La Joie de Vivre” in 2015. Her impact on the world of photography was highlighted once again in 2017 when she received the prestigious “Quijote” Prize in the city of Toledo, among others.
In 2021, Ouka Leele was one of the artists selected by ParisPhoto to be part of the Elles x Paris program. In 2023, during the PHotoESPAÑA Festival, the Real Sociedad Fotográfica organized the exhibition El universo de una estrella, a show that brought together the most interesting works from her production as a posthumous tribute.
Works by Ouka Leele were also included in the exhibition Chromotherapia. Feel Good Color Photography, curated by Maurizio Cattelan and Sam Stourdzé at the French Academy in Rome – Villa Medici, in 2025.
Ouka Leele’s work is present in various national and international collections. In Spain, her works form part of major collections such as the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid, Fundación La Caixa in Barcelona, the Centro Andaluz de la Fotografía, the Museo de Alcobendas in Madrid, the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Ibiza, the Museo Español de Arte Contemporáneo in Madrid, and the Museo Municipal in Madrid. In addition, her works have been incorporated into regional collections such as the Museo al Aire Libre de Ceutí in Murcia, the Centro Municipal de las Artes in Alcorcón (Madrid), and the Fundación Provincial de Cultura in Cádiz. Internationally, she is represented in institutions such as the Fondation Cartier in Paris, the Instituto Cervantes in Lisbon, Tobacco Gitanes in Paris, and the Fundación Antonio Pérez de San Clemente in Cuenca.
The RocioSantaCruz gallery works exclusively with the photographer’s archive.
Ouka Leele : Barcelona 1978-1980
May 15 – September 9, 2026
RocioSantaCruz
Gran Vía de les Corts Catalanes 627
08010 Barcelona
www.rociosantacruz.com
