LETICIA OBEID

Leticia Obeid´s work unfolds in a diverse territory where language, words and their relationship with image are always present. Memory, idioms, languages, translations between different worlds, communication problems, the impact of reading on the perception of reality, the most primary action of writing and its material trace, are some of the themes that appear again and again.

Obeid was born in Córdoba, Argentina in 1975. She received a degree in painting at the Escuela de Artes of the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba in 2001. In parallel, she worked at the Museo Provincial de Bellas Artes Emilio Caraffa where she researched works from the collection and carried out a didactic program called The work of the month. This training was an introduction to writing about art, a practice she never abandoned.

Around 2001 she began to use video in her production and soon it became a predominant medium in her practice. Between 2003 and 2004 she had a scholarship for improvement for this from the Fundación Antorchas. She was also an artist in residence at the Atlantic Center for the Arts, Florida (2001); Cité International des Arts, Paris (2007), Casa Vecina, Mexico (2011) and at the Mellon Foundation Program, College Swarthmore, Brynmawr y Haverford, Pennsylvania (2015).

In 2004 she moved to Buenos Aires. She began working at the Complejo Teatral de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires, first at the Teatro San Martín and then at the Teatro Sarmiento, where she carried out a project to document the works performed within the framework of the documentary theater cycle called Biodrama.

Obeid´s work has been selected by the Premios Petrobrás-ArteBA (2006), Fundación Klemm (2012), Premio Braque (2013); the 6º BIENAL DEL MERCOSUR, Porto Alegre (2007) and the 54º Venice Biennale (2011).

In 2010, she obtained the First Prize for the Concurso de nuevos narradores at the Centro Cultural Rojas, Universidad de Buenos Aires. Since then, she has published Bajo sus pies, Blatt & Ríos, Buenos Aires (2020); Preparación para el amor (2015), Caballo Negro, Córdoba, Preparação para o amor (Portuguese version), Par(ent)esis, Santa Catarina, Brazil (2019); Frente, perfil y llanura, Caballo Negro, Córdoba (2013) and Se conoce que sí, e-book, Blatt & Ríos, Buenos Aires (2012). In 2015, Blatt & Ríos published a monographic book: Leticia Obeid. Escribir, leer, escuchar, Blatt & Ríos, (2015).

Recent solo shows include:  NOTAS Y HUELLAS / notes and traces, Gallery 1313, Toronto (2019); Piedra, Tijera, Papel, HACHE, Buenos Aires (2018); Fantasma, MACBA – Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Buenos Aires (2016); El canto de Jano, Galería Isla Flotante, Buenos Aires (2015); Dobles, MUAC, Mexico (2014); Diamante, Galería 713, Buenos Aires (2011).

Her work has been included in numerous group exhibitions in prominent institutions in Argentina and around the world (selection): Transformación. La gráfica en desborde, Museo Nacional del Grabado, Buenos Aires, Argentina (2021); Las distancias (Estrategias de aproximación en la colección Castagnino+Macro), Museo MACRO, Rosario (2021); Voces del acervo, Palais de Glace, Buenos Aires (2021); Crear Mundos, PROA, Buenos Aires (2020); Artist´s Film International, Whitechapel Gallery, Londres y PROA, Buenos Aires (2020); Zelfportret 470, Autorretratos audiovisuales, Museo Siglo XXI, Zapadores, Ciudad del Arte, Madrid (2020); Exposure, video and sound work from Argentina. Argentine Official Residence in London, in association with Meridiano, Open House the Argentine Association of Contemporary Art Galleries (2019); Estado de situación. Centro Cultural de la Memoria Haroldo Conti, Buenos Aires (2019); Copy, Translate, Repeat: Contemporary Art from the Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, 205 Hudson Gallery, Hunter College, New York, Estados Unidos (2018); BIENALSUR: Escrituras de luz, MAC, Valdivia (2017); BIENALSUR: Gestos cotidianos, ENSABAP Lima, Cine de artistas, DOC BSAS, MACBA; Buenos Aires (2017); La mirada al límite, Fundación Klemm, Buenos Aires (2017); Congreso de Tucumán. 200 años de arte argentino (itinerante in , Museo Provincial de Bellas Artes Emilio Caraffa, Córdoba; Museo Provincial de Bellas Artes Timoteo Navarro, Tucumán; Museo Municipal de Bellas Artes Juan B. Castagnino + Macro, Rosario; MAR Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Buenos Aires, Mar del Plata; Museo Pronvicial de Bellas Artes de Salta; Museo Provincial de Bellas Artes “Franklin Rawson”, San Juan; Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de Neuquén (2016-2018); Mínimo teatral, Museo Castagnino+MACRO, Rosario; Reverberaciones: arte y sonido en las colecciones del MUAC, Ciudad de México; Focus Argentina, ARCO, Madrid; El taller de la resurrección, video-proyección, Museo Reina Sofía, Auditorio 400, Madrid, España (2017); Reverberaciones: arte y sonido en las colecciones del MUAC, Ciudad de México; Focus Argentina, ARCO, Madrid (2017); Poéticas Políticas, Parque de la Memoria, Buenos Aires (2016); International Short Film Festival, Oberhausen (2016); Oasis, Dixit, Arteba 25, Buenos Aires (2016); Sights and sounds: highlights, Jewish Museum, Nueva York (2016); Entre el espíritu y la materia, Fundación Migliorisi, Asunción (2015); Soberanía de uso, Cuenca (2015); Lo contrario de la magia, MALBA – Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (2014); El andar oblicuo, Centro Cultural de la Memoria Haroldo Conti, Buenos Aires (2013); The right to the city, Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam (2013); The life of others, Akbank Art Center, Estambul (2013); Hungry city, Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien, Berlin, Alemania (2012); Economía Picasso, Museo Picasso, Barcelona (2012); Buenos Aires, stories from the cities, Kunstverein Wolfsburg (2011); Menos tiempo que lugar, muestra itinerante por Latinoamérica, (2010-2011). Work by the artist is represented in museum collections such as the MUAC – Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporáneo, México and the Museo Castagnino+Macro, Rosario y among other important private collections.