Saelia Aparicio Spain, b. 1982
Saelia Aparicio dwells on ideas of the organic, establishing analogies between corporeal and social mechanisms. In her practice that spans mural, drawings, sculpture and textile, she finds inspiration from classical mythology and the transformative hybrid forms found in Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia and pre-Columbian Meso-America - hybrids between animals and humans such as the sphinx, Anubis or the Mayan Camazotz. In her works she creates her own imagined figures that seem to mix human forms with animals, plants, or machines. These forms are completely imagined and are very specific in their gender fluidity, drawing from the ‘two-spirited’ idea that comes from Indigenous North American culture. Her wall tapestries - collaboration with fashion designer Craig Green - feature a series of folk-inspired portraits that deliver an expressive take on the human form. From conceptual nature-inspired motifs like parts of walnut trees and poison ivy, the hand-stitched artworks showcase an imaginative mashup of ancient anatomical diagrams and contemporary art.
Saelia Aparicio completed her MA in Sculpture at the Royal College of Art in 2015.
Solo exhibitions include: Protesis para invertebrados, La Casa Encendida, Madrid (2019); Smudging Gooey Airs, Sarabande Foundation, London (2018); Cadena Atrofica, Murcian in collaboration with designer Attua Aparicio from Silo Studio (2018); Your Consequences Have Actions, The Tetley, Leeds (2017); Peaks & Trough’, TURF Projects, London (2017); ‘Burning With Joy’, ASC Gallery, London (2016); and Espeleologia epidermica, Domus Artium, Salamanca (2015).
Group shows include: Retour Sur Mulholland Drive (curated by Nicolas Bourriaud), La Panacée, Montpellier (2017); Bloomberg New Contemporaries, The Bluecoat, Liverpool, and The ICA, London (2016), and A Mysterical Day (curated by Tai Shani), Serpentine Gallery public programme, London (2016). Aparicio has undertaken the following residencies: FIBRA Platform, Mexico (2019); The Bluecoat, Liverpool, UK (2019); New Contemporaries Studio Bursary with Sarabande: The Lee Alexander Mcqueen Foundation (2017); Sema Nanji Residency, Seoul Museum of Art, South Korea (2016); Salzamt Aterlierhaus, Linz, Austria (2014); and Joan Miró Foundation, Palma de Mallorca, Spain (2012).
In 2019, Aparicio won Generaciones 2019, one of the most prestigious awards for emerging artists in Europe and was commissioned by the Serpentine Gallery to make the film ‘Green Shoots’ for their General Ecology symposium and research project, The Shape of a Circle in the Mind of a Fish with Plants.
Aparicio lives and works in London.
