Galina Munroe

Galina Munroe’s mixed-media canvases blend figuration and abstraction, simplifying floral arrangements, wine bottles, cars, and other everyday objects into rudimentary shapes and compelling colors. She combines painting and sewing, often applying and stitching cut canvas fragments to her works. In 2014, Munroe received her undergraduate degree from the European Academy of Art in Brittany, and two years later, her graduate degree from Central Saint Martins in London. Her ebullient pieces have garnered her a strong following on Instagram, where she shares glimpses of her process, which sometimes involves her standing atop large-scale canvases to paint. While most of Munroe’s paintings magnify and revel in the organic forms of familiar objects, she has also incorporated texts. These words, rendered in childlike script, add another layer of playfulness to her textured still lifes. 

After experiencing the emotional strain of living alone in rural France amidst multiple COVID-lockdowns, Galina Munroe noticed a new interest in floral motifs developing throughout her practice. Envisioning the bright canopy-like petals she found herself painting as beacons of hope during an otherwise intense and isolated period, Munroe has continued to explore this floral world after moving back to the UK to be closer to her family. 

Her Instagram.

"Painting has become a necessity for me, I loose days glueing bits of canvas down just to rip them off or paste more over because I've changed my mind, and this happens over and over until the canvas just won't take anymore and answers have surfaced along the way. This is a running thread in my work. There are multiple paintings hidden under the surface, and I see handfuls of other possibilities even when I think I've finished. It's hard for me to leave them be, but I've made peace with this and im allowing it to be one of the main drivers of my practice now. Acceptance of a failure is a real positive, it's extremely stimulating. I have tried to reduce my accidents to be less wasteful, but I noticed that it changed the energy and urgency that I loved seeing on the final surface too much. I think the idea of being the only person who knows what's underneath thrills me a bit too.. I moved from East London to south west France last year and the light down here still blows my mind. I use quite a bright colour palette that seems to be more and more in correlation to my environment. Colour fields and landscapes are amplified around here when the sun hits, it's my main source of colour reference." - A MOMENT WITH GALINA MUNROE