Artist name: Gabriela Albergaria
Dates of residency: Feb – March & August
Born: Vale de Cambra, Portugal
Hometown: Vale de Cambra, Portugal
Lives and works: Lisbon and New York
Education: Licenciatura, Fine Arts – Painting – Faculdade de Belas-Artes da Universidade do Porto, Portugal
URL: http://www.gabrielaalbergaria.com
BIO/ STATEMENT:
Albergaria’s work involves one territory: Nature. A nature manipulated, planted, transported, set in hierarchy, catalogued, studied, felt and recalled through the ongoing exploration of gardens in photography, drawing and sculpture. The artist views gardens as elaborated constructs, representational systems and descriptive mechanisms that epitomize a set of fictional beliefs that are employed to represent the natural world. Gardens are also environments dedicated to leisure and study, cultural and social processes that produce a historical understanding of what is knowledge and what is pleasure.
More generally, the images of gardens and plant species employed by the artist are used as devices to reveal processes of cultural change through which visions of nature are produced. Mediated by representation systems they generate different versions of what we see as landscape—itself a complex system of material structures and visual hierarchies, cultural constructs that define the framing of our visual field.
Since 1999 Albergaria has exhibited regularly around the world. Recent solo shows and installations include Two Trees in Balance , Socrates Sculpture Park, New York (2015), Being of the Yearly Rhythm, Museu da Luz, Portugal (2014-2015); and in 2013 in Galeria Vermelho, São Paolo and Hacienda La Trinidad Parque Cultural, Caracas, Venezuela. Group exhibitions include Prickley, tender and steamy, Artists in the Hothouse, Wave Hill Garden, Glyndor Gallery, New York (2014), and “Do barroco para o barroco – está a arte contemporânea”, Casa da Parra, Santiago de Compostela, Spain (2013). Her work has been featured at the 1a Bienal de Montevideo (2012); Do Not Destroy, Trees Art and Jewish Thought, Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco (2012); Reverse Position (Invertir la Posición), Galeria Wu, Lima, 2012 ; Ecológica, Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo (2010; kurs: the tree, Fuglsang Kunstmuseum, Toreby, Denmark (2009). Residencies include the Wave Hill Public Garden and Cultural Center (Winter Workshop 2012), Villa Arson , Centre National d’ Art Contemporain , Nice , France (2008 ) and the University of Oxford Botanic Garden in collaboration with The Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art , Oxford (2009/2010 ).
GALLERIES: Galeria Vermelho (São Paulo, Brazil), Vera Cortês Art Agency (Lisboa, Portugal)
SELECT PERMANENT COLLECTION: Colecção Luís Augusto Teixeira de Freitas, Portugal / Museu de Arte Moderna da Bahía, Brasil / kfw bankenngrupe, Germany / Centro de Arte Moderna Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Portugal / Perez collection, Miami, FL.
SUPPORT: Gabriela Albergaria’s 3 months residency is supported by private collectors.
