Carmen Calvo – Luis Adelantado Valencia

Bio/CV/News

Carmen Calvo

Una conversación, 1996. Mixed technique. Various objects. 400 x 400 x 400 cm. Venice Biennale, Italy. Monastery of San Miguel de los Reyes.

No sé lo que persigo al convocaros, 2004. Collage on golden board with gold leaf. 80 x 80 cm

Comme d’un cercueil vert en fer blanc, une tête, 2009. Installation in the Botanical Garden, Valencia. Collection of the University of Valencia.

Carmen Calvo. Todo procede de la sinrazón 1969-2016, 2016. General view. Sala Alcalá 31. Madrid, Spain. Photo: Lucas Caraba

Los amantes, 2016. Mixed media. Collage, photography. 100 x 57 cm

Un lugar llano y desnudo, 1996. Mixed technique. Variable measures. Collection of the Institut Valencià d’Art Modern (IVAM)

Carmen Calvo. Matar el sueño – Ametsa Akabatzea 1969-2019, 2019. Fundacion Kutxa, San Sebastián, País Vasco, Spain.

Serie de pizarras, 1996-1997. Mixed technique. Blackboard, collage, objects. Set of 21 pieces of 100 x 130 cm / each one. Collection of Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía.

El sexo en la cara, 1997. Mixed technique. Collage, artificial hair. 157 x 129 cm

Bio

Carmen Calvo (Valencia, 1950) is one of the greatest references of contemporary conceptual art whose work, close to art povera and pop, discovers its language in commonplace objects charged with memory, creating a very personal language to approach the analysis of human behavior as violence and oppression towards women.

As if it were archaeologies, her works are made up of small fragments of various materials, including ceramics or clay, a characteristically material in her work, from small format pieces to her large installations with a resemblance to scenography. The use of vintage photographs is as well part of the artist group of works intervening on them with organic elements such as hair or wax. She also explores the use of mannequins whose dismembered pieces generate aggressive and melancholic theatrical readings.

Carmen Calvo’s work is part of the most prestigious museums and collections and has been part of important national and international exhibitions, including the XLVII Venice Biennale in 1997, New Images from Spain, at the Guggenheim Museum in New York in 1980 as well as her monographic exhibitions at the Museo Reina Sofía in 2002 and at the IVAM in Valencia in 2007. She has been awarded the Alfons Roig Award from the Diputación de Valencia 1989, the Medal from the Faculty of Fine Arts of San Carlos de Valencia 2009, National Prize of Plastic Arts of Spain in 2013 and the Julio González International Prize 2020.

News

A Cage To Live In. DIEHL Gallery. Berlin, Germany

Todo procede de la sinrazón. Sala Alcalá 31. Madrid, Spain

Espai Carmen Calvo. San Miguel de los Reyes. Valencia, Spain