Amalia Pica

1978, Neuquén Capital, Argentina
Lives and works in London

Education
2004-2005 Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2002-2003 Instituto Universitario Nacional del Arte, Buenos Aires, Argentina
1997-2001 Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes P.P. (I.U.N.A.), Buenos Aires, AR

Residencies and workshops
2009 CEIA, Performance workshop, Belo Horizonte, Br
2007 BijlmAIR, Centrum Beeldende Kunst Zuidoost (CBK Zuidoost) and Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam (SMBA), NL
2002 TRAMA Artists cooperation and confrontation program San Miguel de Tucuman, AR, bursary; Workshop on artistic cooperation and contexts of creation, AR

Fellowships/stipends
2005 Ministry of Foreign Affairs , NL
2004 UNESCO-Aschberg 2004 Bursaries for Artists programme Fundación Antorchas, AR

Amalia Pica combines fact and fiction while addressing the origins of the culturally shared experience, myths, traditions and histories, to discuss the concept of the communicated idea. Materials from slide projections, Xerox wall murals, carved stone; film and video have been used in performative ways, thus exploiting their materiality. In the largest work in the exhibition Sorry for the metaphor #2, the artist has created a photomural using Xeroxed sheets applied directly to the wall. The vastly enlarged grainy image is of the artist standing with her back to the viewer on a stone mile marker, bullhorn at her side, facing a Casper David Fredrich like mountain-scape, possibly ready to read it the riot act, whimsicaly looking at arts attempt to communicate. Handmade semaphore flags are activated by the artist in a 35mm slide projection, which spells out words which are indicative to the notion of speaking while saying nothing (BABBLE, BLABBER, CHATTER, GIBBER, JABBER, PATTER, PRATTLE, RATTLE, YAMMER, YADA, YADA, YADA, 2010), one letter per slide. The themes of language and communication are mainstays in Pica’s work, manifesting in homemade radio antennas, bullhorns and even silence and pause.

( Marc Foxx Gallery)