A look at Agnes Ricart Gregori’s bold and colourful illustrations

We speak to Valencia-based artist Anges Ricart Gregori who has begun carving a niche for herself within the world of editorial illustration, creating visuals for the likes of Vice and The New Yorker

There’s something slightly unsettling about Anges Ricart Gregori’s illustrations; perhaps it’s the combination of the intense graphic strokes she uses, along with what she describes as “uneasy” colour combinations: much of her recent work features saturated blues, pinks and yellows. Her work is certainly designed more to stimulate than to calm.

Gregori’s been working as a commercial illustrator for about a year and half, after finishing a BA in Fine Art, another in Graphic Design and Illustration and then an MA in Art Production. But she tells us her training as an illustrator began much earlier. “I developed my love for illustration as a little kid, when I used to spend most of my time diving into illustrated books,” she says.

Illustration about LGBTQA+ relationships for Salty World
Illustration of La Nuca for Beat Magazine, Spain

Her style lends itself well to editorial illustration and her work has already made its way into noteworthy publications like the New Yorker, Vice, Zetland, Beat and Medium. “Editorial illustration is one of my favourites because I love the deep and unlimited ability of images to tell stories,” she says.

“Starting to work with huge clients like the New Yorker has been the best highlight so far, because it has given me the great opportunity to show my work broadly and reach a bigger audience.”

Personal work titled Horsey
Personal work; Illustration of a big cat with a broken phone

In her personal work, she gravitates towards exploring themes of gender and sexuality, and in turn has also received commissions that also examine these ideas. The long read she illustrated for Medium, for example, is the quirky tale of a boy kept awake by his traumatic sexual experiences, while for Vice she has created visuals for stories about hymen reconstruction and vulvodynia awareness.

As the volume of commissions increases, Gregori hopes to continue finding time to devote to self-initiated projects. “My personal projects feed and nourish my commercial works and vice-versa, in a process of reciprocity that enables their mutual and parallel development,” she says. “Although it isn’t always easy, I try to balance both tasks fluently and find enough time to dedicate for each.”

agnesricart.in, @agnesricart