ABOUT

BACKGROUND
I was honoured to be invited by the Ateneo de Jerez and Delegation de Cultura of Jerez to prepare the exhibition for the 2026 Fiesta de la Vendimia de Jerez—the festival marking the start of the grape harvest. It is a major event in Jerez de la Frontera, a city and wine region renowned worldwide for its sherry.

CONCEPT
I have always been fascinated by the curious symbols and markings found on the barrels inside the city’s many vast, shadowy bodegas. Stencilled letters, old wooden arrows worn by decades of use, and quick chalk inscriptions are all vital tools that help winemakers track and guide the aging process—the crianza. This meticulous craft is at the heart of the solera system, unique to this corner of Spain with its rich, chalky albariza soil.

For this project, I took these familiar symbols and repurposed them in an unfamiliar way. Trading the traditional monochrome barrels for vivid colors, I layered arrows, letters, and words to create dynamic new compositions—all contained within the circular frame of the barrel heads.

EXECUTION
I altered the contrast in my photographs to be left with just these letters and symbols. Then I added colour combinations for each one, enlarged them, reduced them, repeated them. All within the closed circle of the barrelhead, onto which I used a grid at every 30 degrees to take me from 0 to 360 - helping to add structure to my compositions.

The purpose wasn't purely decorative type and symbols. Each of the 12 images exhibited had a mini story within. For example, the barrel with the word 'Apostoles' referred to a wine barrel in the vast Gonzalez Byass bodega, which I then added 12 small arrow symbols around, with one in red and pointing downwards referring to Judas. Other arrows, normally used for directions of wine transfer in the bodegas, where then rearranged to make a crucifix on top of that image. In a city that has a strong church tradition such as Jerez, these little extra stories were much loved, like "easter eggs" within each work.

Each image was prepped for 60x90cm prints on a 12 colour plotter that made every colour sing - with the same vivid feel of a screenprint (something sadly unavailable in the city).

RESULTS
The exhibition was a big success and importantly helped people see the things they pass everyday in a different, brighter, light. I am now in talks with the Ayuntamiento de Jerez to use these images (and create more) at the 2027 Feria - after Seville, the biggest in Andalucia - to decorate the barrels that are all over the city at that time.