Carmen Calvo (Valencia, 1950) is one of the greatest references of contemporary conceptual art whose work, close to art povera and pop, discovers its language in commonplace objects charged with memory, creating a very personal language to approach the analysis of human behavior as violence and oppression towards women.
As if it were archaeologies, her works are made up of small fragments of various materials, including ceramics or clay, a characteristically material in her work, from small format pieces to her large installations with a resemblance to scenography. The use of vintage photographs is as well part of the artist group of works intervening on them with organic elements such as hair or wax. She also explores the use of mannequins whose dismembered pieces generate aggressive and melancholic theatrical readings.
Carmen Calvo’s work is part of the most prestigious museums and collections and has been part of important national and international exhibitions, including the XLVII Venice Biennale in 1997, New Images from Spain, at the Guggenheim Museum in New York in 1980 as well as her monographic exhibitions at the Museo Reina Sofía in 2002 and at the IVAM in Valencia in 2007 and in 2022, the latter on the occasion of the International Award Julio González 2020. She has been granted with the Alfons Roig Award from the Diputación de Valencia 1989, the Medal from the Faculty of Fine Arts of San Carlos de Valencia 2009 and the National Prize of Plastic Arts of Spain in 2013, among others. In 2023 she had an important monographic exhibition at the Picasso Museum in Barcelona.
