Ester Partegàs

Color photograph of a light skinned woman wearing a white t-shirt and khaki pants; she stands in an artist's studio among many works of her sculpture
Ester Partegàs with her recent work (photograph by Daniele Molajoli)

Biografia

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Ester Partegàs è artista visiva ed educatrice. Originaria di Barcellona, vive e lavora a New York dal 1997. Ha conseguito un master in scultura presso l’Università di Barcellona e un dottorato in arti multimediali presso la Universität der Künste di Berlino.

Il suo lavoro cerca, scopre e genera domande sul valore, la perdita e il rinnovamento attraverso l’osservazione ravvicinata di ciò che risulta familiare. Con un vocabolario formale vario e fortemente legato all’idea di materia, l’artista incorpora scultura, immagine, pittura e testo confrontandosi con le vecchie abitudini dell’atto di osservare, proponendo, al tempo stesso, un rapporto nuovo con la dimensione materiale che ci circonda più da vicino.

A Roma ha esplorato siti architettonici e archeologici che mostrano il retaggio del corpo nella loro forma (cripte, portali, tombe) e, per contro, rivelano strutture che si comportano come corpi (che cadono, si appoggiano, si spingono, si abbracciano), tracciando così una corrispondenza sensuale tra i luoghi e i loro abitanti.

Partegàs ha esposto ampiamente, a livello nazionale e internazionale. Tra le mostre più recenti: Palazzo Delle Esposizioni (Roma, 2023); NoguerasBlanchard (Madrid, 2022; mostra personale); Fundació Joan Miró (2021); Pure Joy (Marfa, Texas, 2020; personale); Conde Duque (Madrid, 2020); Drawing Center (New York, 2019); Museum of the City di New York (2019); Transborder Biennial/Bienal Transfronteriza, El Paso Museum of Art + Museo de Arte Ciudad Juárez (2018). Altre mostre includono: il MACBA di Barcellona, lo Sculpture Center di New York, l’Artists Space di New York, il Museo Nacional de Arte Reina Sofia di Madrid, l’Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, il Public Art Fund di New York, il Whitney Museum of American Art di Altria, la Whitechapel Gallery di Londra, il MACRO Museum/Depart Foundation di Roma e le Biennali di Mosca, Busan e Atene.

Ha ricevuto la Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant nel 2004, la Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Fellowship nel 2014 e un COVID Relief Fund dalla Foundation for Contemporary Art nel 2020. È stata artista residente presso la Chinati Foundation, il MacDowell e Skowhegan, tra le varie i. È stata docente alla Yale School of Art, alla Virginia Commonwealth University, alla SUNY Purchase e attualmente alla Parsons School of Design. È rappresentata da NoguerasBlanchard a Barcellona e Madrid.

Attualmente Partegàs risiede a Roma, in Italia, come Nancy B. Negley Rome Prize Fellow dell’American Academy in Rome.

Biography

Ester Partegàs is a visual artist and educator, originally from Barcelona. She has been living and working in New York since 1997. Partegàs holds an MFA in sculpture from Universitat de Barcelona, and completed postgraduate studies on multimedia arts at Universität der Künste Berlin.

Her work seeks, discovers and produces questions about worth, loss, and renewal through close observation of the familiar. With a varied formal vocabulary strongly committed to materiality, she incorporates sculpture, image, painting, and text to confront old habits of looking while proposing a renewed relationship with our most immediate material world.

In Rome, she has been exploring architectural and archaeological sites that expose the legacy of the body in their structures (crypts, portals, graves) and, in turn, discover structures that behave like bodies (that fall, lean against, push, embrace), tracing the sensual correspondence between places and their inhabitants.

Partegàs has shown extensively, nationally and internationally. Most recent shows include: Palazzo Delle Esposizione, Roma (2023); NoguerasBlanchard, Madrid (2022, solo); Fundació Joan Miró (2021); Pure Joy, Marfa, TX (2020, solo); Conde Duque, Madrid (2020); Drawing Center, New York (2019); Museum of the City of New York (2019); Transborder Biennial/Bienal Transfronteriza, El Paso Museum of Art and Museo de Arte Ciudad Juárez (2018). Other exhibitions were held at: MACBA Barcelona; Sculpture Center, New York; Artists Space, New York; Museo Nacional de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid; Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT; Public Art Fund, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art at Altria; Whitechapel Gallery, London; MACRO Museum/Depart Foundation, Rome; and the Moscow, Busan and Athens Biennials, among others.

In 2004 Partegàs received the Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant, a Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Fellowship in 2014, and a COVID Relief Fund from the Foundation for Contemporary Art in 2020, among others. She has been a resident at the Chinati Foundation, MacDowell, and Skowhegan, among others. She has served on the faculty at Yale School of Art, Virginia Commonwealth University, SUNY Purchase, and, currently, Parsons School of Design. Her work is represented by NoguerasBlanchard in Barcelona and Madrid.

Partegàs is currently residing in Rome, Italy, as the Nancy B. Negley Rome Prize Fellow at the American Academy in Rome, from September 2, 2022 to July 14, 2023.