Bárbara Allende Gil de Biedma (29 June 1957 – 24 May 2022), also known as Ouka Leele, was a Spanish photographer. Her uncle Jaime Gil de Biedma was a famous poet, and her cousin Esperanza Aguirre was the President of the Community of Madrid from 2003 to 2012.
She was one of the most important photographers during La Movida Madrileña, and she also worked as an illustrator and wrote several poetry books. Ouka Lele died in a Madrid hospital after a long illness.
Among other locations, the artist’s work has been presented throughout Europe, the United States, and Japan. She initially visited Sao Paulo (Brazil) in 1997 to take part in the Contemporary Art Biennial, and her work has been displayed at the Reina Sofa Museum, the La Caixa Foundation, and the ARCO Collection.
Born in 1957 in Madrid, her first occupation was painting; in fact, she studied fine arts before dropping out to learn piano, and she also studied photography at the Photocentro in Madrid (the first photographic school in Spain).
She began exhibiting in 1978, following the publication of her first piece in the book Principio. Her images are generally black and white (she despises color), so when she was asked to provide color photos for the cover, she chose to fabricate the color. As a result, she began to color the pictures, integrating her painting and photography careers.
