Raquel Vila Arisa (Manlleu 1989), resident in the Azores since 2015, graduated in Art and Design in Barcelona, where she specialized in illustration. While still in academic training, she studied painting and animation in Riga, Latvia. During her academic career, she was part of the artistic collective “Morir de Frío”, from 2011 until 2019, dedicated to the dissemination of contemporary culture in Catalonia, through articles of artistic criticism, curating exhibitions, lectures, workshops, and a radio program. In 2015, she arrived on the island of Faial to work as a graphic designer and illustrator at the Fazendo Cultural Association. That same year, she was invited to exhibit her work in Terceira and illustrated her first published book. After also exhibiting her work in Pico and Faial, in 2018 the artist decided to create Lapa Brava, her pseudonym, to distinguish her more personal style and work, as an artist and creative, from other graphic and illustration work done in parallel. Using stencil, ink and watercolor techniques, Lapa Brava's illustrations are inspired by Azorean life and culture, without leaving behind the artist's relationship and vision of the world. Themes such as inclusion and feminism, present in her work, led the artist to reclaim her more activist side with the foundation of the feminist collective Sem Capotes, created in Faial in 2023.