I am now preparing a solo exhibition for Spring 2024 at the Château de Haroué in Eastern France, in collaboration with the Centre for National Monuments of France.

Alicia Paz, Explorations au Féminin

Opening 25 May,12:00-18:30

Panel discussion on 28 September 4 pm with

Sébastien Gokalp, Director of the Musée de Grenoble

Exhibition continues until 3rd November 2024

I am grateful for this exciting opportunity to the Beauvau-Craon Family, to Art advisor Bénédicte Delay, to Edward de Lumley, Director of Cultural Development of the CMN, to Jocelyn Bouraly and the lovely administration staff of the château. Watch this space!

West Dean Artist Residency 2023-2024

I am pleased to announce I have been selected for this amazing opportunity!

As a Mexican artist based in London for over 20 years, I participated in 2019 in a residency at the Leonora Carrington Museum in San Luis Potosí, Mexico. Being immersed in an important Surrealist collection was a catalyst for experimenting with different media, such as camera-less photography and sound, in dialogue with my painting practice. I would like to expand and build upon the dialogue I’ve begun with the legacy of Surrealism, exploring thematic bridges between the UK and Mexico, anchored in art historical connections. West Dean will be the ideal place to develop this creative journey further.

West Dean Founder Edward James thought of himself primarily as a poet yet his innovations in art, design and architecture mark him out as an unrecognised visionary of the twentieth century. Through his patronage and creative partnerships with prominent Surrealists such as Salvador Dalí and René Magritte, as well as his support of artists including Pavel Tchelitchew and Leonora Carrington, James was involved in the creation of some of the most enduring representations of the avant-garde, including the iconic Mae West Lips Sofa and Lobster Telephone.

Kunstmuseum Magdeburg, Germany-New Presentation of the Collection

17.09.2022-31.12.2023

With the new exhibition floor in the north wing, the Kunstmuseum Magdeburg has more space for art. A large brass mansard roof spans the new building from the city side, while the inside of the monastery courtyard follows the medieval cubatures and blends in with the appearance of the cloister. Large windows open up the view of the city from the new exhibition space and enable the art to be staged in the light-flooded rooms.

The exhibition area offers space to present the results of the collecting activities of the last 20 years - primarily works of international contemporary art in painting and photography. These include works by Liliane Tomasko, Sven Johne, Brian Eno, Xanti Schwawinsky, Alicia Paz and Peter Herrmann.

Evensong, from Hanging Gardens series, mixed media on canvas, 2015, 210 x 170 cm, collection Kunstmuseum Magdeburg

Alicia Paz selected for residency at CFPR, UWE Bristol 2022-2023

The Centre for Print Research (CFPR) is a distinctive centre of research excellence based at the University of the West of England. It is a unique, multidisciplinary group that combines knowledge and skills across traditional and digital techniques to reflect, innovate and find creative solutions for the future of print. Established in 1998, the CFPR has developed partnerships with world leading academic institutions and an outstanding record in working with collaborators across a wide range of sectors, including fine art, design, material science and engineering.

In 2019 the centre was granted an award of GBP 7.7M from Research England’s ‘Expanding Excellence in England’ (E3) Fund to increase its internationally acclaimed empirical investigation into the artistic, historical, and industrial significance of creative print practices, processes, and technologies. It seeks to develop into a major globally recognised research centre for new printing methods, a contemporary and truly inter-disciplinary centre for the future, where external partners co-create research with researchers in state-of-the-art facilities. The new CFPR Laboratory space at UWE Bristol’s Frenchay Campus was opened in 2021.

The CFPR continues to expand its research capacity under four key research areas:

New Materials: Towards Sustainable Technologies

Digital Manufacturing: Additive, Subtractive, Hybrid

Print and Imaging: Reappraising the Past

Visual Art, Print and Artists’ Books: Methods and Making

CFPR Artist Residencies- Autumn 2022-23

The artist in residence programme presents a truly exciting opportunity for collaboration and the enrichment of the CFPR’s research activities. Artists and designers will make a body of work that contributes to the CFPR archive and the editions portfolio. They will bring a curiosity and range of interests in areas such as fine art, print, product design, robotics, electronics, software, manufacturing, and materials science, encouraging new and productive research partnerships. As well as producing a body of work, resident artists will deliver a range of inspiring talks and participative sessions to our researchers and student community. 

Alicia Paz is a painter and sculptor based in London who studied MA Painting at Royal College of Art in 2008 and Postgraduate Diploma at Goldsmiths College, London in 2000.

This Summer, Alicia has been researching the archives and historic collections of Chatsworth House in Derbyshire, focusing on the lived experience of particular women, such as chef Dora Lee and also Lady Lucy Cavendish. She has also explored textiles, as well as fine and decorative arts, to inspire a new body of work using the technique of photograms. During her Autumn residency at CFPR, Alicia is developing translations of these photographic images into printed fabrics and other supports, with hand-painted interventions, to be displayed on a folding screen structure. The aim is to create a theatrical labyrinth of interrelated images, as a rich dialogue between painting, photography, print and sculpture. Alicia also hopes to make a three-dimensional edition in ceramic or glass, reflecting on costume and attire. While in Bristol, she will explore local historic locations to inspire further works in print.

Alicia’s project is developed in partnership with S1 Artspace in Sheffield and Chatsworth House.

https://cfpr.uwe.ac.uk/cfpr-artist-residencies/

I am delighted and honoured to be working with these remarkable institutions, in partnership:

https://www.s1artspace.org

https://www.chatsworth.org

https://cfpr.uwe.ac.uk/wp/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/CFPR-Visiting-Artist-Designer-in-Residence.pdf

Public art projects

Insel der Puppen

Public sculpture commission, Kunstmuseum Magdeburg, Germany

This sculpture presents four-sided “tree” structure, (5.10 meters in height) inhabited by a assortment of female figures originating in different time periods. Ambivalent narratives play hide-and-seek among the branches. The women are not meant to be particular individuals, (although some are well-known) rather, they remain hinted at or anonymous within the sculpture. Through these portraits, certain archetypes can be explored. In the feminine landscape that emerges from the subconscious realm, psychological projections materialize and instinctively can take on grotesque, beautiful, humorous, or dramatic forms. Each character carries the potential for her own story, intertwining with those of other figures. The title came from a conversation with Mexican archeologist Elizabeth Baquedano; we discussed Mayan legends involving mythical heads in trees, and also the "island of dolls” in the canals of Xochimilco in Mexico, where a man has hung hundreds old, tired and dirty dolls on the trees of his little island. It is said that his young daughter drowned, and a doll was found in the water. This was the beginning of a kind of cumulative process for him, maybe a way of mourning. My own tree is not as macabre as this description, but I liked the sound of the phrase, as something more oblique. Other references are Julia Kristeva’s critical text on "Severed Heads”, analysing historically the head as symbol and metaphor, and Billie Holiday’s song “Strange Fruit”, against racism and oppression.  But these elements that inspired me are combined with several others, and only whispered. The piece remains ambiguous.

There is a long history linking trees and foliage with female figures, from Greek mythology to medieval European Folklore, to Renaissance and Baroque Grotesque ornamentation. In my own practice, I often use this motif to symbolize an existential position: the Self as a complex, hybrid being, traversed by multiple narratives, multiple personae, evolving organically over time, as in the life-cycle. 

This project was generously supported by Cemex Germany and the Mexican Embassy in Germany, SRE.

I'd like to thank Annegret Laabs, Uwe Gellner, and Judith Mader for making this project possible. I'd like to also thank Elizabeth Turrell, Jessica Turrell, Sebastian Anastasow, Klaus Pfeiffer, James Shearer (otherfabrications.com), as well as the staff at A.J. Wells, for their production and design assistance.

Edition of 25 signed and numbered prints, commissioned by Kunstmuseum Magdeburg, Germany

Silk-screen and digital print.  Collaboration with Michael Hall, Invisible Print Studio, London.

https://www.invisibleprintstudio.co.uk www             kunstmuseum-magdeburg.de/en/home.html

My piece The Super-Ego, the Id and their Ladies in Waiting (Mixed media on board,152 x122 cm, archival frame, 2013) has recently been acquired by the City of Paris Municipal Contemporary Art Fund, (FMAC).

Fonds municipal d'art contemporain de la Ville de Paris

1, rue Jean Mazet 94200 Ivry-sur-Seine – France Tél. : 01 46 71 20 53

julie.bigey@paris.fr   fmac@paris.fr     fmac.paris.fr    BLOG FMAC à l’école

Article published in Turps Banana Issue 18 pg. 18-23

Michael Szpakowski: Two visits to three different paintings by Alicia Paz

www.turpsbanana.com

www.furtherfield.org/user/michael-szpakowski

Exhibition catalogue for Tous, des sang-mêlés!

Essays (bilingual English and French) by Alexia Fabre, Frank Lamy and Julie Crenn

Published by
MACVAL - Musée d’art contemporain du Val de Marne
Place de la Libération, 94400 Vitry-sur-Seine, France
01.43.91.64.20

ISBN 978-2-916324-95-1

www.macval.fr/english

Cette exposition s’ancre dans l’actualité pour aborder la question de l’identité culturelle au travers de visions et d’expériences d’artistes : Qu’est-ce qui nous rassemble ? Comment se construit une culture commune malgré des origines toujours différentes / diverses ? Ces interrogations, en effet, agitent le monde.

Sous le patronage conjoint de l’historien français Lucien Febvre et de son ouvrage Nous sommes des sang-mêlés : Manuel d’histoire de la civilisation française (1950), ainsi que celui de Stuart Hall, père fondateur des Cultural Studies, cette exposition souligne la dimension fictionnelle de la notion d’identité culturelle. Le parcours imaginé par les commissaires est nourri de propositions soulevant des questionnements et apportant des éclairages sur ce qui nous réunit et nous distingue, sur la transmission et le devenir, sur le pouvoir et la résistance, sur l’individualité et le collectif… Par la voix d’une soixantaine d’artistes internationaux et d’une centaine d’œuvres, les identités culturelles, nationales, sexuelles… sont autant de thèmes ici questionnés. Si tous ont l’être pour sujet, certains sont perçus comme manifestes, d’autres soulèvent le débat — souvent passionnel, résolument politique, et d’autres encore font surgir de la mémoire les traces du passé, émerger le sensible, l’expérience, l’existence même, allant de l’instinct de survie au vivre ensemble.

Les œuvres réunies abordent ces thématiques à partir de situations vécues dans une optique d’échange et de dialogue. Si l’identité culturelle est une fiction, il s’agit de voir comment les artistes l’interprètent, l’interrogent, la remettent en question… en sortant de la perspective identitaire, trop souvent réductrice.

Comment se construit-on par rapport à la langue, au territoire, à la famille, à l’Histoire et sa narration, aux stéréotypes ? L’exposition met en espace des éléments d’un terrain du commun, où les altérités se déploient ensemble et en regard les unes des autres.

Chaque visiteur peut s’approprier, à travers l’histoire, la sensibilité, la parole et l’engagement d’artistes de tous horizons, âges et nationalités, des éléments de réflexion pouvant alimenter sa propre acception de la notion « d’Identité ».

Avec les œuvres de : Soufiane Ababri, Mathieu Kleyebe Abonnenc, Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Adam Adach, Nirveda Alleck, Francis Alÿs, Giulia Andreani, Fayçal Baghriche, Sammy Baloji, Raphaël Barontini, Taysir Batniji, Sylvie Blocher, Martin Bureau, Ali Cherri, Claire Fontaine, Steven Cohen, Bady Dalloul, Jonathas De Andrade, Morgane Denzler, Jimmie Durham, Ninar Esber, Esther Ferrer, Karim Ghelloussi, Marco Godinho, Mona Hatoum, Joana Hadjithomas et Khalil Joreige, Maryam Jafri, Katia Kameli, Jason Karaïndros, Bouchra Khalili, Kimsooja, Kapwani Kiwanga, Will Kwan, Lawrence Lemaoana, Mehryl Levisse, Violaine Lochu, Melanie Manchot, Lahouari Mohammed Bakir, Kent Monkman, Malik Nejmi, Nguyen Trinh Thi, Otobong Nkanga, Harold Offeh, Daniela Ortiz, Alicia Paz, Adrian Piper, Présence Panchounette, Pushpamala N, Athi-Patra Ruga, Zineb Sedira, Yinka Shonibare MBE, Société Réaliste, Tsuneko Taniuchi, Erwan Venn, James Webb, Sue Williamson, Chen Zhen