Sofía Cristina Jiménez, winner of the XLVII Carta Puebla 2025 Plastic Arts Competition
- Redacción EEP
- Nov 14
- 3 min read
The artist Sofía Cristina Jiménez has been awarded the Miguelturra Town Hall Award at the forty-seventh edition of the Carta Puebla Visual Arts Competition, held in October 2025. The competition, with almost five decades of uninterrupted history, is one of the oldest contemporary art competitions in Castilla-La Mancha.
The winning work, Natural History Diorama , was selected from 129 proposals by 97 artists from across Spain. The professional jury particularly valued the dialogue between classical technique and contemporary concept that characterizes the work of this Madrid-based artist from El Espacio Permanente.
A rigorous competition
The Carta Puebla competition boasts double the average participation rate of similar regional events. Its continuity since 1979 and the rigor of its jury have made it a benchmark for artists seeking professional validation beyond the commercial dynamics of the art market.
In this edition, the jury was composed of specialists in visual arts who evaluated each proposal anonymously, considering both the technical quality and the conceptual coherence of the works presented.
About the award-winning work
The Natural History Diorama is part of the Plastic Nature series, a group of works that reflects on the artificiality of our everyday environment. The piece takes as its reference point the early museum dioramas created by Carl Akeley for the American Museum of Natural History in New York at the beginning of the 20th century, spaces where taxidermy and set design constructed a perfect but inert nature.
In this 110 x 110 cm acrylic painting on linen, Jiménez transforms that idea, taking it into the realm of contemporary surrealism: animals appear as metallic balloons, suspended in a space that is simultaneously natural and artificial. The work questions our relationship with nature through the visual language of entertainment and consumption.
When I began this work, I was interested in exploring the tension between the living and the decorative. Museum dioramas attempted to preserve nature, but ended up mummifying it.
Turning those animals into helium balloons was a way of taking that paradox to the extreme: objects that seem light and festive, but are completely inert. A nature that is no longer nature, but its simulacrum.
Why does this recognition matter to the art collector?
For those seeking to purchase contemporary Spanish art from artists with verifiable trajectorys, institutional awards like the Carta Puebla serve as indicators of quality and professional consistency. Unlike emerging competitions, this contest boasts a 47-year archive, allowing for the identification of coherent trends within the national art collecting landscape.
The original work awarded in this type of competition usually experiences greater interest among private and institutional collectors, not only because of the recognition, but also because of the validation that comes from having been selected from among a hundred proposals by an independent professional jury.
This is the second institutional recognition of 2025 for El Espacio Permanente. Jiménez's work is also part of Royal Caribbean's permanent collection on the Star of the Seas cruise ship and has been exhibited at fairs such as Art Madrid and JustMad. This consistency of exposure and recognition is a relevant indicator when investing in emerging art or purchasing original paintings by artists in the consolidation phase of their professional trajectory.
The Carta Puebla Contest
Founded in 1979 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the founding of Miguelturra, the competition has maintained an editorial line that prioritizes conceptual research and technical quality over fleeting trends. Its longevity—48 editions in the visual arts category—makes it one of the oldest painting prizes in Spain still active.
As reported by the Miguelturra City Council and the Diario de Miguelturra newspaper , the award ceremony was attended by municipal and provincial authorities, reaffirming the institutional commitment to culture in the region.
The winning artwork will become part of the municipal collection and can be viewed at the Cultural Resources Center (CERE) in Miguelturra. Other works from the Plastic Nature series are available at El Espacio Permanente.
Sofía Cristina Jiménez, winner of the Carta Puebla Award .
Editorial Staff, The Permanent Space
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