Amalia Pica Explained

Birth Place:Neuquén, Argentina
Birth Date:1978
Nationality:Argentine
Amalia Pica
Education:Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten
Instituto Universitario Nacional del Arte
Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes P.P
Clínica de Obra con Tulio de Sagastizabal

Amalia Pica (born 1978 in Neuquén, Argentina) is a London-based Argentine artist who explores metaphor, communication, and civic participation through sculptures, installations, photographs, projections, live performances, and drawings.[1] Pica currently works and lives in London.[2]

Early life and education

Pica was born in Neuquén, Argentina, in 1978. She earned a BA from the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes Prilidiano Pueyrredón in Buenos Aires in 2003. From 2004 to 2005, she held an artist residency at the Rijksakademie van beeldende kusten.[3] [4]

Influences and work

Pica was born in the late 1970s during the Dirty War, a period of state terrorism in Argentina. In light of this fact, Pica's work raises questions about the role of government, language and communication, and human connections. Much of her work explores fundamental issues of communication, such as the acts of delivering and receiving messages (verbal or nonverbal) and the various forms these exchanges may take.

Victor Grippo, Cildo Meireles, Lygia Clark and Hélio Oiticica, among others, were the artists that Pica first studied.[5]

Strangers (2008–16)

Pica’s performance piece, Strangers, first performed in 2008, was featured in the updated Tate Modern and focuses on the complex communication between strangers. The work requires two strangers to hold each end of a string of colorful bunting without letting it touch the ground in the limited space. The resulting distance creates a barrier that prevents the linked participants from having an intimate communication. Julie Rodrigues Widholm, director at the DePaul Art Museum, states that, “The bunting suggests a party or communal gathering, and Pica plays with the idea of distance and proximity as it relates to communication.”[6]

One, No One and One Hundred Thousand (2016)

In 2016 Amalia Pica participated in the group exhibition “One, No One and One Hundred Thousand” shown in the Kunsthalle Wien (Vienna). Amalia Pica was one of nine artists who were commissioned to create art that alters continually in contact with visitors; viewers were invited to mount and change the exhibition, resulting in an unlimited number of possible arrangements. The exhibition aimed to question the dominant role of the curator in structuring the exhibition. According to the Kunsthalle Wien, “the main actor of the exhibition will be the spectator who will not act as a consumer but as a co-producer of the artists and the curator.” Pica exhibited her series, Joy in paperwork (2016).[7]

A ∩ B ∩ C (2013)

In A ∩ B ∩ C (read as A intersection B intersection C), Amalia Pica uses translucent colored Perspex shapes, with which performers will produce different compositions in front of the audience. The notion of intersection links to the idea of collaboration and community. This artwork is a performative manifestation of Venn diagrams, which were forbidden from being taught in elementary schools during the 1970s, as the concept of intersection and collaboration were seen as potentially subversive by the Argentine dictatorship.[8] [9] [10]

The inspiration for Pica's exhibition, A ∩ B ∩ C, stems from the dictatorship in her home country of Argentina (1976–1981). A ∩ B ∩ C critically comments on the banning by the dictatorship of Venn Diagrams in elementary schools. In the Guggenheim Museum’s Soundcloud excerpt, Pica discusses her “Art Under the Same Sun” exhibition, housed at the Guggenheim in 2013, sharing her interest in the overlapping and intersecting of individual objects.[11]

Amalia Pica (2012–13)

Previously shown at the Chisenhale Gallery in London and at the MIT List Visual Arts Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the exhibition Amalia Pica uses everyday objects as signifiers of celebration: fiesta lights, flags and banners, confetti, rainbows, photocopies, lightbulbs, drinking glass, beer bottles and cardboard. According to the publishing house, & Pens Press, “Pica’s work is directly dealing with the translation of symbolic language and motivated by how meaning is created and deciphered between the artist and the viewer.”[12]

Catachresis (2011-12)

Metaphors are also part of Pica's work, as she uses figures of speech to describe things that have no name. "An object that has no name—that, in a way, escapes language—by invoking something entirely unrelated. Hence, we get phrases like ‘leg of the chair’ or ‘neck of the bottle’ which attach human qualities to inanimate things. Objects have a space and a weight, a physical presence that eludes language. You can’t speak an object: you have to speak around it. Metaphors are a way of doing that. In a sense, when we talk about the world, it's always in metaphors." Pica's Catachresis merges distinct and contrasting found materials, such as the leg of a table or the elbow of a pipe, to construct sculptural forms that become new tools of communication and take on identities of their own.[13]

Venn diagrams (under the spotlight) (2011)

Pica's interest in the relationship between text and image is evident in Venn Diagrams (under the Spotlight), which consists of two colored circles of light cast from theater spotlights to form a Venn diagram. The Argentine government banned this diagram from being taught in classrooms in the 1970s, as it was thought to be an incendiary model of social collaboration. "The two circles of light are nothing but forms until the caption situates them historically, cluing you to their perception as subversive in the context of Argentine dictatorship in the 1970s. I’m interested in the ideas that we project onto images and objects: how they resist as much as accommodate them."

Hora Catedra (2002)

Pica is also fascinated with childhood. Possibly her best-known early work, Hora Catedra, explores the lessons and themes of childhood and how they irrevocably stay with us through adult life. In Hora Catedra, Pica proves how what we internalize during our childhood will accompany us through adult life: most Argentines believe The House of Tucuman, the site of Argentina's Declaration of Independence, to be yellow, as it is shown in children's books. However, it is actually white. The 2002 site-specific installation bathed the building in a bright yellow light, in reference to the misconception.[14] [15] [16]

Exhibitions

Amalia Pica's work has been exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, the Venice Bienniale, and the Tate Modern in London. In 2014, her work was included in the group exhibition, Under the Same Sun, presented at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. Her artwork is part of MACBA, and the Guggenheim's collection.[17]

Selected solo exhibitions

DateExhibitionPlace
2016Strangers[18] TATE Modern, London
2014A ∩ B ∩ C[19] [20] Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven
2014One thing after another[21] La Criée, Centre d'Art Contemporain, Rennes, France
2014Dessauerstrasse[22] König Galerie, Berlin
2014Switchboard[23] Mostyn, Wales
2013Memorial for Intersections[24] Kunsthalle, Lisbon
2013Low Visibility[25] König Galerie, Berlin
2013A ∩ B ∩ C[26] Museo Tamayo, Mexico City
2013Ascendant Artists: Amalia Pica[27] [28] Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
2013Amalia Pica MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge
2012Amalia Pica[29] Chisenhale Gallery, London
2012On Paper[30] Basis, Frankfurt
2012For Shower Singers[31] Modern Art Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
2011Amalia Pica: UMMA Projects[32] [33] University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, Michigan
2011Endymion's Journey[34] Marc Foxx Gallery, Los Angeles
2010Amalia Pica: babble, blabber, chatter, gibber, jabber, patter, prattle, rattle, yammer, yada yada yada[35] Malmö Konsthall, Malmö

Selected group exhibitions

DateExhibitionPlace
2019Fly me to the Moon. The Moon landing: 50 years on[36] Kunsthaus Zürich, Zürich, CH
2019Iteraciones sobre lo no mismo[37] Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina
2019Concrete Contemporary[38] Museum Haus Konstruktiv, Zürich, Switzerland
2019Is This Tomorrow?[39] Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK
2019After Leaving / Before Arriving[40] 12th Kaunas Biennial, Lithuania
201812th Shanghai Biennale[41] Power Station of Art, Shanghai, China
2018Darbyshire, Gander, Pica, Starling[42] Hayward Gallery, London, UK
2017Double Edge[43] Folkestone Triennial, Folkestone Triennial, Folkestone, UK
2017Soundtracks[44] San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, US
2017Curators’ series #10: Greater than the sum, curated by Kunsthalle Lissabon[45] David Roberts Art Foundation, London, UK
2017Monumentos, anti-monumentos y nueva escultura pública[46] Museo de Arte Zapopan, Zapopan, Mexico
2016One, No One and One Hundred Thousand[47] Kunsthalle Wien, Zürich, Switzerland
2016 Under the Same Sun: Art from Latin America Today[48] Museo Jumex, Mexico City (Guggenheim touring)
2015 MaterialKönig Galerie, Berlin
2015 Display Show[49] Eastside Projects, Birmingham, UK, touring to Stroom den Haag, The Hague, NL
2015 Beauty Codes[50] Fondazione Giuliani, Rome
2015 Repetition and Difference[51] The Jewish Museum, New York
2015 Group Exhibition[52] Marc Foxx Gallery, Los Angeles
2014 Histories II: Works from the Serralves Collection[53] Museu Serralves, Porto, Portugal
2014 The Reluctant Narrator [54] Museu Berardo, Lisbon
2014 Under the Same Sun: Art from Latin America Today[55] Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
2013 Audible Forces[56] F-320, New Delhi, India
2013 The Printed Room: Emmy Moore's Journal[57] Salts, Birsfelden, Switzerland
2013 When Attitudes Became Form Become Attitudes[58] MOCAD Detroit, Michigan
2013 Version Control[59] Arnolfini, Bristol, United Kingdom
2013 Project Space: Ruins in Reverse[60] TATE Modern, London
2012 Chronic Listeners[61] Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen, St. Gallen, Switzerland
2012 Common Ground[62] Public Art Fund, New York
2012The Ungovernables[63] New Museum, New York
2012Silence[64] Menil Collection, Houston
2010Map Marathon[65] Serpentine Gallery, London
2008World Event[66] Kunsthalle Basel, Basel
2007Drawing Typologies[67] Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam

Recognition and awards

Amalia Pica was awarded a CIFO grant, from the Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation, in 2011.[68] In that same year, her work was part of the ILLUMInazioni project in the Venice Biennale.[69] Also in 2011, Pica received the illy Prize—aimed at celebrating the most innovative artist of the international art fair Art Rotterdam—and the Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award, established by one of the largest independent grant-making foundations in the UK.[70] [71]

In 2012, Amalia Pica was the recipient of The Future Generation Art Prize, which she received for an installation of her works focusing on communication and listening. Featured works are Sorry for the metaphor, Acoustic Radar in Cardboard, Under the Spotlight: Red on Red and Eavesdropper. The artist herself explains that “the way [she] installs [her] shows are more like conversations between different pieces…the works kind of shift meaning every time there’s a new company of other works.” Pica’s interest in human modes of communication extends to exploration of the human desire to be understood despite the imperfections of those forms of communication.[72]

In 2013, she was one of the finalists for the Pinchuk Foundation's Future Generation Art Prize.[73] In 2020, she was awarded the Zurich Art Prize.[74]

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Amalia Pica: "Me gusta el concepto de intimidad cultural". La Nación. 2015-12-09. 2015-05-29. Chatruc. Celina.
  2. Web site: Amalia Pica . 2024-08-15 . Tanya Bonakdar Gallery . en.
  3. Web site: Amalia Pica. MIT List Visual Arts Center. 2015-12-07.
  4. Web site: Jóvenes artistas argentinos en el exterior, parte 2: Irene Kopelman y Amalia Pica.
    1. BellasArtes
    . 2015-12-07. es-es.
  5. Web site: Playing Telephone: An Interview with Amalia Pica – Interviews – Art in America. www.artinamericamagazine.com. 2015-11-30.
  6. Web site: Aesthetica Magazine – Amalia Pica. Beesley. Ruby. May 2013. Aesthetica Magazine.
  7. Web site: One, No One and One Hundred Thousand. February 19, 2016. Kunsthalle Wien.
  8. Web site: Amalia Pica. www.guggenheim.org.
  9. Web site: Collection Online Amalia Pica. A ∩ B ∩ C. 2013 – Guggenheim Museum. www.guggenheim.org. 2015-12-01.
  10. Web site: Amalia Pica "A ∩ B ∩ C (Line)" at Herald St, London / MOUSSE CONTEMPORARY ART MAGAZINE. moussemagazine.it. 2015-12-08.
  11. Web site: Amalia Pica, A ∩ B ∩ C, 2013. August 23, 2013. Soundcloud.
  12. Web site: Friday Favorite: Amalia Pica. August 23, 2013. & Penns Press, Los Angeles.
  13. Web site: Amalia Pica – Aesthetica Magazine. www.aestheticamagazine.com. 2015-11-30.
  14. Web site: Amalia Pica bola de nieve. www.boladenieve.org.ar. 2015-12-07. 2015-12-22. https://web.archive.org/web/20151222114643/http://www.boladenieve.org.ar/en/artista/266/pica-amalia. dead.
  15. Web site: Artist of the week 196: Amalia Pica. The Guardian. 2015-11-30. Skye. Sherwin.
  16. Web site: Aesthetica Magazine – Amalia Pica. Aesthetica. 2015-11-30. en-GB.
  17. Web site: Amalia Pica: "Me gusta el concepto de intimidad cultural". www.lanacion.com.ar. 2015-12-01.
  18. Web site: Performance at Tate: Into the Space of Art. Finbow. Acatia. October 2016. Tate Modern. https://web.archive.org/web/20170328105713/http://www.tate.org.uk/research/publications/performance-at-tate/case-studies/amalia-pica. 2017-03-28. dead.
  19. Web site: Fletcher. Annie. Amalia Pica A-B-C (Line). Van Abbe Museum. 22 October 2016.
  20. Web site: Amalia Pica, A ∩ B ∩ C, 2013. 2015. Soundcloud.
  21. Web site: One Thing After Another – La criée. www.criee.org. 2015-11-30. https://web.archive.org/web/20151208174347/http://www.criee.org/Amalia-Pica,1313?periode=Archives. 2015-12-08. dead.
  22. Web site: "MATERIAL" KÖNIG GALERIE Dessauerstrasse. König Galerie. 2015-11-30. 2015-12-23. https://web.archive.org/web/20151223120615/http://www.koeniggalerie.com/exhibitions/1673/material/. dead.
  23. Web site: Amalia Pica. MOSTYN. 2015-11-30. 2015-12-22. https://web.archive.org/web/20151222122031/http://www.mostyn.org/exhibition/amalia-pica. dead.
  24. Web site: Amalia Pica : Kunsthalle Lissabon. www.kunsthalle-lissabon.org. 2015-11-30.
  25. Web site: "Low Visibility" KÖNIG GALERIE Dessauerstrasse. König Galerie. 2015-11-30. 2015-12-23. https://web.archive.org/web/20151223112823/http://www.koeniggalerie.com/exhibitions/1689/low-visibility/. dead.
  26. Web site: Museo Tamayo. museotamayo.org. 2015-11-30. https://web.archive.org/web/20151222132101/http://museotamayo.org/exposicion/a-b-c-un-proyecto-de-amalia-pica. 2015-12-22. dead.
  27. Web site: MCA – Exhibitions: Amalia Pica. mcachicago.org. 2015-12-16.
  28. Web site: Friday Favorite: Amalia Pica. August 23, 2013. & Pens Press, Los Angeles.
  29. Web site: Archive Past Exhibitions Amalia Pica Chisenhale Gallery. chisenhale.org.uk. 2015-11-30. https://web.archive.org/web/20151222141223/http://chisenhale.org.uk/archive/exhibitions/index.php?id=123. 2015-12-22. dead.
  30. Web site: On paper. basis Frankfurt e.V. production and exhibition platform. 2015-11-30.
  31. Web site: Amalia Pica at Modern Art Oxford Oxford Today. www.oxfordtoday.ox.ac.uk. 2015-11-30. https://web.archive.org/web/20151222105600/http://www.oxfordtoday.ox.ac.uk/culture/events/amalia-pica-modern-art-oxford. 2015-12-22. dead.
  32. Web site: Amalia Pica: UMMA Projects. Flickr – Photo Sharing!. 2015-11-30.
  33. Web site: UMMA Magazine May – June 2011. 2020-11-10. Issuu. en.
  34. Web site: Marc Foxx – AMALIA PICA. www.marcfoxx.com. 2015-11-30. https://web.archive.org/web/20151222102730/http://www.marcfoxx.com/exhibitions/1441. 2015-12-22. dead.
  35. Web site: AMALIA PICA – babble, blabber, chatter, gibber, jabber, patter, prattle, rattle, yammer, yada yada yada. www.konsthall.malmo.se. https://web.archive.org/web/20171017145845/http://www.konsthall.malmo.se/o.o.i.s/4621.. 2017-10-17. dead. 2017-03-27.
  36. Web site: Fly me to the Moon. The Moon landing: 50 years on. Kunsthaus Zürich. 14 April 2019.
  37. Web site: Iteraciones sobre lo no mismo. Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Buenos Aires. 14 April 2019.
  38. Web site: Concrete Contemporary. 7 February – 5 May 2019. Museum Haus Konstruktiv. 14 April 2019.
  39. Web site: Is This Tomorrow?. Whitechapel Gallery. 14 April 2019.
  40. Web site: After Leaving / Before Arriving. Kaunas Biennial. 14 April 2019.
  41. Web site: 12th Shanghai Biennale. Power Station of Art. 14 April 2019.
  42. Web site: Darbyshire, Gander, Pica, Starling. Southbank Centre. 14 April 2019.
  43. Web site: Double Edge. Creative Folkestone. 14 April 2019.
  44. Web site: Soundtracks. San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. 14 April 2019.
  45. Web site: Curators’ series #10: Greater than the sum, curated by Kunsthalle Lissabon. David Roberts Art Foundation. 14 April 2019.
  46. Web site: Monumentos, anti-monumentos y nueva escultura pública. mxcity.mx. 14 April 2019.
  47. Web site: One, No One and One Hundred Thousand. 19 February 2016. Kunsthalle Wien.
  48. Web site: Huerta. JF. Bajo un mismo sol | Museo Jumex. Art in DF. 22 October 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20161023050940/http://artindf.com/bajo-un-mismo-sol-museo-jumex/. 23 October 2016. dead.
  49. Web site: Eastside Projects Display Show. www.eastsideprojects.org. 2015-11-30.
  50. Web site: fondazione giuliani » Beauty Codes (order/disorder/chaos). www.fondazionegiuliani.org. 2015-11-30. 2015-12-22. https://web.archive.org/web/20151222114425/http://www.fondazionegiuliani.org/category/exhibitions/beauty-codes-orderdisorderchaos-en/?lang=en&lang=en. dead.
  51. Web site: Repetition and Difference. The Jewish Museum. 2015-11-30.
  52. Web site: Marc Foxx – LEONOR ANTUNES, ANNE COLLIER, LUISA LAMBRI, CARTER MULL, ANNETE KELM, AMALIA PICA, MATTHEW RONAY, MAAIKE SCHOOREL, FRANCES STARK, HIROSHI SUGITO, MATEO TANNATT. www.marcfoxx.com. 2015-11-30. https://web.archive.org/web/20151222173141/http://www.marcfoxx.com/exhibitions/1603. 2015-12-22. dead.
  53. Web site: Fundação de Serralves – Serralves. Serralves. 2015-11-30. en-EN. 2015-12-22. https://web.archive.org/web/20151222102330/http://www.serralves.pt/en/thinking/visit/guided-tours-in-portuguese-sign-language//activities/guided-tour-histories-works-from-the-serralves-collection-2/. dead.
  54. Web site: The Reluctant Narrator Museu Berardo. en.museuberardo.pt. 2015-11-30.
  55. Web site: Guggenheim UBS MAP Global Art Initiative – Latin America. www.guggenheim.org. 2015-12-01. 2015-11-15. https://web.archive.org/web/20151115052949/http://www.guggenheim.org/guggenheim-foundation/collaborations/map/latinamerica. dead.
  56. Web site: Exhibit320 – Art Gallery, Contemporary Art Space, Art Gallery in India. www.exhibit320.com. 2015-11-30.
  57. Web site: Salts Switzerland. www.salts.ch. 2015-11-30.
  58. Web site: Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit. www.mocadetroit.org. 2015-11-30. https://web.archive.org/web/20151120103118/http://www.mocadetroit.org/past-exhibitions.html. 2015-11-20. dead.
  59. Web site: Version Control – Arnolfini. www.arnolfini.org.uk. 2015-11-30. admin.
  60. Web site: Project Space: Ruins in Reverse Tate. www.tate.org.uk. 2015-11-30.
  61. Web site: Archive – Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen. www.kunsthallesanktgallen.ch. 2015-11-30. 2015-12-22. https://web.archive.org/web/20151222092321/http://www.kunsthallesanktgallen.ch/en/exhibitions/archive.html?year=2012#en/3/events/amalia-picakarsten-foedingermark-pezinger-verlag.html. dead.
  62. Web site: Public Art Fund : Common Ground. www.publicartfund.org. 2015-11-30.
  63. Web site: THE UNGOVERNABLES, 2012 NEW MUSEUM TRIENNIAL. New Museum. 2017-03-27.
  64. Web site: Silence. Menil. 2018-10-17.
  65. Web site: Map marathon for the 21st century, London. Sterling. Bruce. 2010-10-15. Wired.
  66. Web site: World Event.
  67. Web site: Drawing typologies – proposal for municipal art acquisitions drawings.
  68. Web site: CIFO Artists. www.cifo.org. 2015-11-30.
  69. Web site: La Biennale di Venezia – Artists. www.labiennale.org. 2015-12-07.
  70. Web site: illy Announces 2011 Illy Prize Winners During Art Rotterdam. popsop.com. 2015-11-30. 2015-12-22. https://web.archive.org/web/20151222165006/http://popsop.com/2011/02/illy-announces-2011-illy-prize-winners-during-art-rotterdam/. dead.
  71. Web site: Amalia Pica Paul Hamlyn Foundation. artists.phf.org.uk. 2015-11-30.
  72. Web site: Future Generation Art Prize 2012 – Amalia Pica, Argentina. Dec 3, 2012. YouTube.
  73. Web site: "The Future Generation Art Prize@Venice 2013" / PinchukArtCentre. PinchukArtCentre.org. 2015-11-30.
  74. Web site: February 19, 2022 . Proyectos Ultravioleta announces representation of Amalia Pica . 2022-10-01 . Artdaily.cc . English.