Artist Name: Gema Rupérez
Residency Dates: September – November 2023
Born: 1982
Hometown: Zaragoza, Spain
Lives & Works: Zaragoza, Spain
URL: gemaruperez.com | Instagram: @gemaruperez
Gallery: NO·NO Gallery (Lisbon) | A Pick Gallery (Turin)
Education:
2005 | Bachelor Degree in Fine Arts from San Carlos University, Valencia, Spain
2008 | Research Diploma (DEA Diploma) Project: “Plastic Arts and Contemporary Sculpture. The Seductive Power of Transparency”
Bio/Statement:
Gema Rupérez is a Spanish multidisciplinary artist who works with different media such as installation, photography, video, and drawing. Rupérez questions the viewer about the different realities that stress our contemporary society and addresses a global context of multiple mutations where technology is present, with its tempos, timings, and hegemonies. She highlights the structures of domination and the defiance of such, based on resistances, highlighting the frustrations, fears, and fragilities of humankind. Art curator Adonay Bermúdez describes her work as follows: “Rupérez proposes a collection of critical expressions and a combination of actions born out of disobedience, in order to contain the horizons of oppression that tarnish our future. Her commitment to informing and, subsequently, proposing a transformation of reality mean that we find ourselves before an artist who understands that the real hope lies in collectivity.”
In order to generate an authentic and real discourse, she collaborates with different social actors. She works between the scenographic and the performative, understanding that the pieces she makes are activated by whoever inhabits them while they reflect on confrontation, the struggle for hegemonic power or the inability to communicate. In short, all Rupérez’s work is an approximation from the plastic arts to the dilemmas of contemporary society.
Gema Rupérez’s art works have been exhibited individually or collectively in France, Canada, The United States, Japan, Bolivia, United Arab Emirates, Italy, and Spain. Her most recent solo exhibitions include Status quo at IAACC Pablo Serrano, Spain (2022-2023) and Líneas de resistencia at Deputation of Huesca, Spain (2019).
Her work is represented in numerous public and private collections, notably: IAACC Pablo Serrano, Deputation of Huesca, Ramón J. Sender Foundation, Casa Velázquez, Nagasaki Prefectural Art Museum, José García Jiménez Foundation, City Council of Zaragoza, Ibercaja, Antonio Gala Foundation, Center 14, Museum of Genalguacil, University of Zaragoza, Polytechnic University of Valencia, Deputation of Zaragoza, Enate Collection, Pilar Citoler Foundation, and other private collections.
She has received several scholarships, including the Ramón Acín Creation and Research Grant (Deputation of Huesca), Felipa-Manuela Art Residency (Madrid), Art Residency at Kiosko Gallery (Bolivia), and participated in programs at Casa de Velázquez – Académie de France (Madrid) and Antonio Gala Foundation (Cordova).
Rupérez has received 1st Prize awards from the Ramón J. Sender Foundation (UNED), José García Jiménez Foundation (Murcia) and Arts Santa Isabel de Portugal (Zaragoza). She has received 2nd Prize awards in the 3rd International Emerging Artist Award (Dubai) and VI Plastic Arts Contest of the University of Zaragoza, among others.
Click here to see a video interview where the artist talks about her projects and her solo exhibition Status quo at the IAACC Pablo Serrano.
Support: Gema Rupérez’s residency is made possible with support from the Fundación CAI, Porsche Zaragoza and the Consulate General of Spain in New York.
