Asier Mendizabal

Asier Mendizabal is a visual artist and is involved in several educational projects in addition to his current position as professor of sculpture at KKH, Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm. His work developed from an early interest in the way in which the reconstruction of Basque culture in the 20th century adopted the language of abstraction through a singular translation into popular and political uses. The representation of the collective, the construction of identity and the role of technique in these phenomena have been recurring themes in his work, which has often been described as a critique of ideology. His practice confronts conventional narratives of history, archival or ethnographic objects, or political and subcultural representations, looking at the technical and material conditions of all of them. Writing is a regular resource in his practice, always in relation to sculpture.

Asier Mendizabal (Ordizia, 1973) lives and works in Bilbao and Stockholm where he is professor at the Royal Institute of Art. He has had solo shows in museums like MACBA, Barcelona; Museo Reina Sofía, Madrid, Culturgest, Lisbon; Raven Row, London; Galerie Miroslav Kraljevic, Zagreb; Hordaland Kunstsenter, Bergen; Museo San Telmo, Donostia-San Sebastián; Zarigüeya/Alabado contemporáneo, Quito. And group shows like Chacun a son goût and El arte y el espacio, Museo Guggenheim, Bilbao; A Singular Form, Secession, Viena; Whose Subject am I?, Kunstverein Düsseldorf; Scenarios about Europe, GFZK, Leipzig, In the First Circle, Fundació Tapies, Barcelona; Às Artes, Cidadãos, Museu Serralves, Porto; Després de la notícia, at CCCB, Barcelona. Besides he has been selected for Manifesta 5, 54 Venice Biennale (ILLUMInazioni – ILLUMInations), 31 São Paulo Biennale, EVA International 2014, Limerick, Ireland; Taipei Biennale 2002; and Bucharest Biennale 4, Bucharest.