Biography
I was born in La Plata in 1959. I am a professor and graduate in Plastic Arts (Focus on Ceramics) of The Fine Arts Faculty, National University of La Plata (UNLP). Between 2007 and 2009 I attended Tulio de Sagastizábal’s workshop on Clinic of Artwork. Currently, I am a full professor of Ceramics and researcher of DAVPP-IUNA (National University of the Arts). Since 2009 I am a member of the International Academy of Ceramics (IAC).
I live in the City of La Plata, where I have my studio.
In 2014 I exhibited, alongside various artists from La Plata, at the Latin American Contemporary Art Museum (MACLA) in the ‘Disrupted Territories’ exposition, a project curated by Lucía Savloff, in the context of the 1st anniversary of the April 2 flood in La Plata. Then I went to Spain in order to take part in the 16th International Course on Ceramics in Pontevedra, Galicia as a guest artist. I was also invited to take part in the 3rd Jakarta Contemporary Ceramics Biennale, in Indonesia and in the 2014 Hangzhou International Contemporary Ceramic Biennale Exhibition, in Hangzhou, China.
During 2013 I participated in the 58th Faenza Prize, an international biennial contemporary ceramics competition held at the MIC, in Faenza, Italy, where I was awarded the Prize of the Consiglio Regionale dell’Emilia-Romagna. In July I exhibited ‘The Collector’ 2nd edition at the Lebensohn Foundation, with Claudia Toro’s curatorship, and in August I went to Mexico, where I held the exhibition ‘Home’, alongside Ana Gómez, at the Medellín 174 Gallery in Mexico City. Then I went to Oaxaca, Xapala and Monterrey to conduct various seminars about my research on Ceramic-Graphic Techniques.
In March 2012 I held a solo exhibition called ‘The Collector’ at the Malvinas Cultural Center in La Plata, curated by Claudia Toro. In May of said year I was awarded the Ceramics Acquisition 1st Prize, in the 89th National Annual Exhibition of Santa Fe, at the Rosa Galisteo de Rodriguez Museum in the Province of Santa Fe, Argentina.
Between 2011 and 2012 I participated in the Taiwan Ceramics Biennale at the Yingge Ceramics Museum in New Taipei City, Taiwan, where I received a special mention from the Jury. I was also selected to participate in the 10th International Ceramics Biennale of Manises, Valencia, Spain.
Between February and April 2011, I exhibited alongside a group of Mexican artists in an exposition curated by Manuel Velázquez called ‘Landscapes-Memories’, at the Contemporary Cell, UCSJ, Mexico City, Mexico.
In 2010 I was awarded the 2nd prize L’Alcalatén from the Deputation of Castellón in the 30th International Ceramics Competition of L’Alcora (CICA), at L’Alcora Ceramics Museum, Alcora, Spain.
In 2008 I was selected by Argentina to participate in the Residency Sino-Latin American Ceramic Art Exchange Program. Fule International Ceramic Art Museums (FLICAM) in Fuping, China.
In 2001 I was awarded the Grand Prize of Honor in Ceramics in the 90th National Exhibition of Visual Arts, Culture Department of Argentina.
I conduct Extension, Undergraduate and Graduate Seminars in national and foreign institutions, such as ENAP-UNAM (National Autonomous University of Mexico) and DAV-USP (University of São Paulo, Brazil), among others, and I participate in Congresses, Conferences and Symposia in various countries.
Vision of art
1. Choose a work that represents you, describe it in relation to its format and materiality, its relation with time and space, its style and theme; detail its production process.
From the series After the Storm, Marked House. 2014. Installation. Fiberboard, wallpaper, cut vinyl, acrylic, iron table and ceramic.
I produced this work for the exhibition Territorios Conmovidos (Disrupted Territories)
Below I quote an excerpt from the curatorial text by Lucía Savloff:
“The exhibition was born from the sensations that were aroused to a group of artists from La Plata after the perception of what happened during the terrible flood that hit their city last April 2nd of 2013. The artworks of Graciela Olio, Marcela Cabutti, Mariela Cantú Gabriel Fino and Paula Massarutti display a diverse set of poetics that allows us to think about how the construction of images and artistic devices participates in the process of building a collective memory.
Certain circumstances constitute an event to the extent that causes a deviation in the course of our everyday experience. Natural or social tectonic movements displace the foundations on which we build us. The unpredictable breaks, hits, and then opens, letting us see what was below that which has been moved. The flood brought our attention to what we usually don´t look, putting our fragility in public, and revealing that the way we live, build and socially act modifies the territory we inhabit. The artworks in this exhibition do not try to "represent" what happened. The artists conceive the practice of memory from the field of poetry, creating works and devices that function as meeting spaces that enables dialogues unknown a priori. As blocks of sensations or resonance boxes, the artworks create meeting infrastructures and invite to build from its empty spaces. If the disruptive experience operates as a large gap in our symbolic order, the poetic has the ability to register, give presence, or make visible that which escapes in our attempt to narrate what happened.”
2. In general terms, how would you suggest to approach your work?
I do not have any suggestion for reading my work.
3. In reference to your work and your position in the national and international art fields, what tradition do you recognize yourself in? Who are your contemporary referents? What artists of previous generations are of interest to you?
I do not identify myself within any tradition. There are many contemporary artists who constitute a reference point for my work. Some of them among Argentine artists are: Liliana Porter, Ana Gallardo, Marcela Cabutti, Graciela Sacco, Paula Masarrutti, Leo Battistelli, Elba Bairon, Rita Flores, Claudia Toro, Andrea Moccio, Sebastián Gordín, Luis Benedit, Victor Grippo, Vicente Marotta, Antonio Berni. Some of the foreign artists are: Louis Bourgeois, Kiki Smith, Cindy Sherman, Adriana Varejao, Mark Manders, Ana María Maiolino, Alexandra Engelfriet, Gabriel Orozco, Antony Gormley, Marek Cecula, Piet Stockmans, among many others.
4. Choose works or exhibitions from the last ten or fifteen years which in your opinion were very significant and explain why
Graciela Sacco “Nada está donde se cree…”, at The Contemporary Art Center MUNTREF, 2014.
Sebastián Gordín “Un extraño efecto en el cielo”, at Buenos Aires Museum of Modern Art (MAMBA), 2014.
Marcela Cabutti “Menos existen en un solo lugar”, at Art Center, OSDE Foundation, 2014.
Liliana Porter “El hombre con el hacha y otras situaciones breves”, at The Latin American Art Museum of Buenos Aires (MALBA), 2013-2014.
Ana Gallardo “La corporeidad obstinada de la memoria”, at The Municipal Art Museum of La Plata (MUMART), 2013.
Chiachio and Giannone “Bordaton”, at Ruth Benzacar Art Gallery, 2012.
I was deeply moved by all these exhibitions, which aroused my deep admiration for the talent and honesty of said artists. They are also a source of inspiration and a constant encouragement.
5. What tendencies or groupings from common elements do you see in argentine art of the last ten or fifteen years?
I think that the most significant aspect of recent years is the drive towards social issues (and the urge to be connected to and work in this field), towards creating a collective memory, towards exploring the other’s universe beside them. The collective, virtual, material, precarious, ephemeral, relational and contextual aspects appear as focal points in artistic actions.
