The How Black Was My Valley series features 12 evocative visual testimonies on the complex tapestry of the South Wales mining valleys. Commissioned for the same named book, which will be published by Repeater and Penguin Random House in April 2024 and written by the Rhondda valleys born writer and political philosopher Brad Evans, they speak directly to the books chapters and its deeper concerns. The works were produced by the Mexican painter Chantal Meza (who is the artists husband). Inspired by the personal life stories of the author & time the artist has spent living in the company of the mountainous Welsh communities, they capture the life and fate of communities so often caught up in global winds of change, which have profoundly altered the character and identity of the place.

Born in Tecali de Herrera in Mexico, Chantal has been living and working in the United Kingdom for the past 5 years. During this time, she spent several months living in the Rhondda valleys, which became the inspiration for this series of works. As the artist noted, “while living thousands of miles away from my hometown in Mexico, I felt a strange kind of affinity, which I couldn’t really put into words. The peoples of the valleys are similar in so many ways to the peoples of Mexico. They know hardship. They know suffering. They know the weight of history. And they share a deep relationship with tragedy. But they also know the importance of dignity. So like I often feel when I am in Mexico, those communities in the mountains brought me closer to the tensions within art that reveal to us the darkness people endure, but also the passionate fire within. I have tried to do justice to this with the series, which I hope speaks to something the valleys touched within me”.

Chantal’s work has featured in exhibitions, auctions and biennials in prominent Museums & Galleries in Mexico, Paraguay and the United Kingdom. She has delivered international lectures and workshops at reputable universities (including Harvard University & the Ecole Normale Superior, Paris) and has been commissioned publicly and privately. Her works have featured in many art magazines and on the cover of reputable academic and cultural journals. Achievements have included a notable Public Recognition Award for her contribution to Culture in her province in Mexico. Her first solo show in the United Kingdom “State of Disappearance” recently took place in Bristol during Oct/Nov 2023 to great success. It was supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England along with many other partners and was accompanied by two weeks of public events from prominent international authorities dealing with a range of issues including enforced disappearance, slavery and the holocaust. Chantal is co-editor of the “State of Disappearance” book, which is published by McGill-Queens University Press. It features the full collection of 75 artworks she produced, accompanied by eleven essays from world renowned academics who write about the importance of Chantal’s art in reimagining the problem of disappearance in the 21st Century.

This book launch coincides with the launch of the book ‘How Black was my Valley’ by Brad Evans at 12 noon on Wednesday 10 April.