As part of Art Nou, Barcelona’s Emerging Art Festival
Curated by Maria Ribas Ferrer
25.7 – 1.9.2026
THIS WAS NOT THE PLAN
by Maria Ribas Ferrer
We have all had a plan that did not turn out the way we expected. An idea of how something would be, a conversation we imagined differently, a version of ourselves that never came into existence. What is interesting is that, very often, it is precisely there, in that small deviation between what was supposed to happen and what actually does, that something more compelling emerges. THIS WAS NOT THE PLAN arises from that tension, from the moment when the need to control an image begins to coexist with the possibility of allowing something unexpected to happen.
Many of Jet Snaith’s works originate from personal experiences, specific people, and moments that remain in memory in one way or another. The artist works with a kind of emotional archive made up of conversations, memories, and scenes from everyday life. Within it coexist lost friendships, arguments, former relationships, and everything that, although it seemed left behind, continues to form part of our personal narrative. WhatsApp messages, phrases taken from private conversations, and small details that might appear insignificant become elements within the paintings, as if what would normally remain buried in a phone’s history found a second life on canvas.
There is something profoundly contemporary in this gesture. We live surrounded by traces of our own stories. We save screenshots, reread old conversations, and accumulate evidence of moments that have already passed. Snaith takes these digital remnants and transforms them into images, shifting them from the intimate sphere into a space where others can recognise themselves. What begins as a specific experience ultimately functions as a shared emotion.
Snaith describes her visual language as “cheeky, grotesque and chunky”: a combination of humour, excess, and a sensibility that moves between the playful and the uncomfortable. There is something in her paintings that recalls the intensity with which we construct our own emotional fictions, blending memories, desires, wounds, and imagined versions of events. Her practice understands painting as a deeply physical and performative process, where gesture, the accumulation of layers, and the direct relationship with the surface are essential components of the work. The artist reclaims this freedom to develop a more complex investigation into identity, relationships, and the ways in which we construct our own narratives.
This relationship between memory and representation also connects to the way the artist approaches femininity. Snaith employs codes traditionally associated with the feminine, colours, gestures, and visual references, in order to play with them and question their limits. Her images do not seek to represent a fixed idea of womanhood, but rather to explore a fluid identity full of contradictions: vulnerable and powerful, delicate and excessive, familiar and strange.
Humour plays a fundamental role within her practice. It is not used to diminish the significance of what is represented, but to transform the way we engage with it. Exaggeration, irony, and playfulness allow personal situations to be viewed from another perspective, turning what once seemed uncomfortable into something capable of generating new interpretations.
In THIS WAS NOT THE PLAN, Jet Snaith transforms painting into a place where the unforeseen can find new forms of existence. Her works do not seek to close a story, but to open it, creating space for contradiction, transformation, and all the possibilities that emerge when the original plan is no longer the only path forward.
Jet Snaith (Cape Town, South Africa, 2004) is an emerging artist who conceives her work as an intimate visual journal and, simultaneously, as an act of confrontation and liberation. Her practice serves as a vehicle to express the things she could not say at the time, sometimes in a frontal manner and sometimes indirectly, using a language that is open to interpretation.
At the core of her practice are play, experimentation, and deliberate imperfection. While she is primarily drawn to oil painting, she does not limit herself to any specific medium. Her provocative, cheeky, and evocative pieces explore femininity and gender performativity, while also questioning masculinity and power dynamics. Her work is constantly referential, reinterpretive, and cathartic: “everything and nothing is important to understanding it”.
THIS WAS NOT THE PLAN
por Maria Ribas Ferrer
Todos hemos tenido un plan que no salió como esperábamos. Una idea de cómo iba a ser algo, una conversación que imaginábamos de otra manera, una versión de nosotros mismos que nunca llegó a existir. Lo curioso es que muchas veces es precisamente ahí, en ese pequeño desvío entre lo que debía pasar y lo que finalmente ocurre, donde aparece algo más interesante. THIS WAS NOT THE PLAN nace de esa tensión: del momento en el que la necesidad de controlar una imagen empieza a convivir con la posibilidad de dejar que algo inesperado suceda.
Muchas de las obras de Jet Snaith parten de experiencias personales, personas concretas y momentos que permanecen de alguna forma en la memoria. La artista trabaja con una especie de archivo emocional formado por conversaciones, recuerdos y escenas de la vida cotidiana. En él conviven amistades perdidas, discusiones, antiguas relaciones y todo aquello que, aunque parecía quedar atrás, sigue formando parte de nuestra propia narrativa. Mensajes de WhatsApp, frases extraídas de conversaciones privadas o pequeños detalles que podrían parecer insignificantes se convierten en elementos dentro de la pintura. Como si aquello que normalmente quedaría perdido en el historial del teléfono encontrara una segunda vida sobre el lienzo.
En este gesto hay algo profundamente contemporáneo: vivimos rodeados de rastros de nuestras propias historias. Guardamos capturas de pantalla, volvemos a leer conversaciones antiguas y acumulamos pruebas de momentos que ya pasaron. Snaith toma estos restos digitales y los transforma en imagen, desplazándolos desde lo íntimo hacia un espacio donde otras personas pueden reconocerse. Lo que comienza como una experiencia concreta acaba funcionando como una emoción compartida.
Snaith define su propio lenguaje como “cheeky, grotesque and chunky”: una mezcla de humor, exceso y una sensibilidad que se mueve entre lo divertido y lo incómodo. Hay algo en sus pinturas que recuerda a la intensidad con la que construimos nuestras propias ficciones emocionales, mezclando recuerdos, deseos, heridas y versiones imaginadas de los acontecimientos. Su práctica entiende la pintura como un proceso profundamente físico y performativo, donde el gesto, la acumulación de capas y la relación directa con el soporte son parte esencial de la obra. La artista recupera esta libertad para desarrollar una investigación más compleja sobre la identidad, las relaciones y la forma en la que construimos nuestras propias narrativas.
Esta relación entre memoria y representación conecta también con la manera en la que la artista aborda la feminidad. Snaith utiliza códigos asociados tradicionalmente a lo femenino (colores, gestos y referencias visuales) para jugar con ellos y cuestionar sus límites. Sus imágenes no buscan representar una idea fija de mujer, sino explorar una identidad cambiante, llena de contradicciones: vulnerable y poderosa, delicada y excesiva, cercana y extraña.
El humor aparece como una herramienta fundamental dentro de su práctica. No sirve para restar importancia a aquello que representa, sino para cambiar la forma en la que nos enfrentamos a ello. La exageración, la ironía y el juego permiten mirar situaciones personales desde otro lugar, transformando aquello que en un momento parecía incómodo en algo capaz de generar nuevas lecturas.
En THIS WAS NOT THE PLAN, Jet Snaith convierte la pintura en un lugar donde aquello que no estaba previsto puede encontrar nuevas formas de existir. Sus obras no intentan cerrar una historia, sino abrirla: dejar espacio para la contradicción, la transformación y todas aquellas posibilidades que aparecen cuando el plan original deja de ser el único camino.