ALICIA CANDIANI
Av. federico lacroze 1956, 7 piso. C1426CPR buenos aires argentina
STATEMENT
The image of the
human body has been a great protagonist in art practices world wide during the
last decade. However, in the hands of artistas latinas
(Latin American female artists), it has developed in a
special way. Here, the body visually matured as a socio-political
post-expressionism, with a special focus on gender and cultural identity. In this context, my work is
an exploration on the question of the female body – some times heroic or
archetypal, other times suffering- but always related to
reformulate the culturally accepted ideas about woman, in general, and her
social role in Latin America, in particular
The Conquest Series
alludes in a first level to the conquest of the Americas by the European while
is a reflection on the female role in the experience of exile, whether
voluntarily or not, and her responsibility in the reorganization of the human
family at the beginning of this XXI Century. The series visually explores the
relationship between mapping bodies and mapping the earth. These body maps are
critically discussing political issues and the time that they portray the
erotic, economic and commercial fantasies or expectation invested in the female
body.
In these
circumstances of loss of personal identity, women take on added oppressions
based on gender, in addition to those to which they are subjected as
immigrants. Moreover, they bear
the burden of reconstructing their families in new contexts which take away
their traditional frames of reference. As women are obliged to recreate
and reconstitute both a personal and social identity, they appeal to a shared
set of collective aspirations. It
is memory, history, treasured or mundane objects, cultural norms, religious
beliefs, and the sense of belonging all which play roles in the creation of new
modes of living. These new modes are themselves unstable, and changing in a
world which is also in constant flux and
movement.
ARTIST BIO
Alicia Candiani is an international Argentine artist and
independent scholar based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She is graduated of the
National University of Cordoba, Argentina, where received a Master in Fine Art
and a degree in Architecture. In the same university she led the Printmaking
and Art History Departments and taught all major printmaking techniques for 15
years. She did postgraduate studies on Latin American Art at the University of
Buenos Aires, Argentina and specialized in innovative printmaking and digital
imaging techniques at the Iowa State University in the United States. She
lectures widely about new and digital media in graphic arts and her articles
has been published nationally and internationally. She has been selected by the
Argentine National Academy of Fine Arts as one in ten best graphic artists in
her country in 1998, 2000 and 2004. Currently, she is the director of Proyecto
<A-Ce> an international art center focused on printmaking, design and
new media which is located in her home city.
Alicia Candianis work has been shown in over 300 shows and
one-person exhibitions since 1977. She has exhibited these works extensively,
both nationally and internationally, and had been selected for inclusion in
many prestigious international juried exhibitions including Norwegian Print Biennial in
Norway; Intergrafia: World Award Winners Exhibition, Krakow and Majdanek Triennials in Poland, Biennial Master of
Graphic Arts in Hungry;
Triennial of Graphic Arts in
Bitola, Macedonia; Triennial of Chamalirs in France, Sapporo, Kanagawa and Kochi Print Biennials and Triennials in Japan, Biennial of Graphic
Art, Slovenia; Seoul
Print Biennial in Korea, German
Exhibition of Graphic Art in
Germany, as well as Portraits Exhibitions in Bosnia Herzegovina. In the United States she was
invited to participate of the traveling exhibitions Global Matrix (2002),
Latin American Artists: a traveling exhibition of 36 contemporary Latin
American artists (1997 through 1999) and Paper Vision V: Works on paper by 30
contemporary Latin American artists (1994). In Asia, her work has been
included in three major exhibitions celebrating the 2000-year: Reveals-Harmonize in Macao,
Y2K International Exhibition in Taipei, Taiwan and Millennium
00 in Yokohama, Japan and more
recently in Asia Print Adventure (2003) in Japan. Her works are the recipient of numerous
major international awards such as the Mention of Honor at the Bharat
Bhavan International Biennial of Print Art (India,2004) Grand Diploma for
Graphics at the X INTERBIFEP: International Biennial of
Portraits, Drawings and Prints
(Bosnia&Herzegovina, 2002); Grand Prix at the Ural Print Triennial (Russia,
2001); Honorable Diploma at the 3rd
International Triennial of Graphics Arts in Bitola, Macedonia (2000); Grand Prix City of Varna
at the International Print Biennial Varna 99, Bulgaria (1999), 1st Prize at the XI San Juan's Print Biennial for Latin American and the Caribbean
Countries (Puerto Rico,1995), Special
Prize at the International Print Triennial Kanagawa
'98, Japan and the Sponsor's Prize
at the 4thSapporo International Print Biennial (1998), Japan; 2nd Prize at the
International Print exhibition in Ourense, Spain (1994) as well as won many
national awards in her native country. Her scholarships have included
residences at the University of Boston (2004) Inky
Paper Series, University of Wyoming (2002), Atelier Presse Papier in Trois
Rivires, Canada (1999); Frans Masereel Centre for
the Graphics in Kasterlee, Belgium (1997) and Iowa State University in Iowa,
United States (1991-92). Her work
can be found in private and public collections in the Americas, Europe and
Asia.
Alicia has been very active in her scholarly contributions
to her profession. She has presented numerous topics to the field of graphic
arts through her participation in conferences, teaching and lecturing widely on
various aspects of art, printmaking and digital media. She has been invited as a guest
professor and lecturer at numerous institutions over the world as International
Center for Graphics Arts in Slovenia (2004); Egyptian Ministry of Culture
(2003); Casa de las Amricas (2003), U.N.E.S.C.O. (United Nations for
Education, Sciences and Culture Organization); Pablo de la Torriente Brau
Cultural Centre and Ministry of Culture in Cuba (2002), Free University of
Varna, Bulgaria (2001); the International Print Triennial in Prague, Czech
Republic (2001); Rutgers University (2004), University of Michigan (2003),
University of Connecticut (2003), University of Wyoming (2002), University of
Kansas (2002), Indiana University of Pennsylvania (2002), University of Miami University/Florida International
University (2000), Ohio University (1998), Iowa State University (1993,1995),
Southern Graphic Council (1998,2000), Mid American Print Council (2002) and the
Graphic Arts Studios (1995-1996) in the United States; Museograbado and the
Zacatecas Institute of Culture(2004) and University of Guanajuato (1999) in
Mexico; the San Juan Print Biennial,
the University of Puerto Rico, the Puerto Rican Institute of Culture,
Interamericana University and the School of Arts in Puerto Rico (1995, 1998,
2000, 2001); the University of the West of England in Bristol, England (1999);
the Atelier Livre in Porto Alegre, Brazil (2000); the International Print Biennial
of Trois Rivieres in Canada (1999), the National University of Cordoba,
National Museum of Fine Prints, National School of Fine Arts, the Northern
University and the Goethe Institute (1986 through 2000) in Argentina, among
others. She has been appointed as a member of the International Jury at the
Ural Print Triennial (UFA,Russia Federation, 2004); Egyptian Print Triennial
(El Cairo, Egypt, 2003), San Juan Print Biennial (San Juan,Puerto Rico, 2001),
International Triennial of Graphic Arts Prague (Czech Republic,2001), Lessedra
Print Exhibition (Sofia, Bulgaria,2004) and the Young Print Biennial (Havana,
Cuba, 2003). Her articles has been published national and internationally.