GILDA PICABEA

Gilda Picabea (Buenos Aires, 1974) delves into the Argentine concrete movement and its connections with Brazil, as well as its optical derivatives in Venezuela and its influences on contemporary art. Her work’s relationship with the tenets of this avant-garde movement goes beyond the use of geometric shapes; Picabea is interested in questioning the visual structures we consider accepted or expected in the configuration of our way of seeing, both in the history of art and in the world at large. In this sense, her goal is to disenchant the gaze through abstraction, paying attention to what has been erased, to discomfort, to absence.

Picabea studied at the the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes Prilidiano Pueyrredón, Buenos Aires (1997-2000). She attended workshops by artists Susana Schnell, Tulio de Sagastizábal, Karina Peisajovich and Cynthia Kampelmacher.

Among her recognitions, she has received the Acquisition Prize at the 16th Bancor Painting Prize, Córdoba, Argentina (2023); Premio Nacional, Fundación Osde, Buenos Aires (2023) and the Second Prize at the V Salón Nacional de Pintura Vicentín, Reconquista, Santa Fe, Argentina (2016).

She has presented the following solo exhibitions: Sucesiva simultánea, Teatro El Círculo, Rosario (2022); 0.21 en la fase de un nuevo comienzo. intervención Banco Ciudad/ arteba 2021, Arenas Studios, Buenos Aires (2021); Un perfil dibujado en el espacio & Distante, HACHE, Buenos Aires, Argentina (2019-2020); Seré feliz, curador J.J. Cambre, HACHE, Buenos Aires, Argentina (2016); INCONCLUSA, HACHE, Buenos Aires, Argentina (2014); Ocultamiento / Distancia / Continuidad, Central de Proyectos, Buenos Aires, Argentina (2011), among others.

Her work has been included in many group shows (selection): 18° Concurso Nacional UADE de Artes Visuales, Buenos Aires (2023); XXV Premio Klemm a las Artes Visuales, Buenos Aires (2021); 109 Salón Nacional de Artes Visuales, Casa Nacional del Bicentenario; Buenos Aires (2021); Lo que queda, Hache galería, Buenos Aires (2020-2021); Vértigo, MACBA – Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Buenos Aires, curaduría Lucía Savloff, Buenos Aires (2019); XXIII Premio F. J. Klemm a las Artes Visuales, Buenos Aires (2019); Zig Zag, Curador J.J. Cambre, Colección Oxenford, Buenos Aires (2018); Latinoamérica: Volver al Futuro, Curador Federico Baeza, MACBA – Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Buenos Aires (2018); La vida de los humanos, Curador Carlos Herrera, Patio Bullrich, Buenos Aires (2018); 7ma Bienal Nacional de Pintura, Premio Ciudad de Rafaela , Museo de Bellas Artes, Santa Fé (2017-2018); Pensar en abstracto, MACBA – Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Buenos Aires (2017); Lo firme en el centro encuentra correspondencia, Hache galería, Buenos Aires (2017); Has llorado, en silencio, Hache galería, Buenos Aires (2016); V Salón Nacional de Pintura Vicentín, Museo de Bellas Artes, Reconquista, Santa Fé (2016).

In 2021, Picabea presented La línea roja de Lidy Prati at the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (Argentina), a research, artistic intervention and curatorial project she carried out on the museum’s collection of arte concreto which seeks to revalue Prati’s fundamental contribution to the Movimiento Concreto through her intervention in the mythical magazine Arturo. This project was carried out through the Activar Patrimonio 2020 Grant awarded by the Secretaría de Patrimonio del Ministerio de Cultura de la Nación.

Picabea´s work is part of the permanent collection of MACBA – Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Buenos Aires.