Pilar Albarracín

Born in 1968 in Seville, Spain. Lives and works between Seville and Madrid.

 

Pilar Albarracín graduated in Fine Arts in 1993 from the University of Seville. Since the early 1990s, her work has been presented in major solo and group exhibitions in galleries and museums worldwide, including the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris; Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin; PS1 MoMA, New York; İstanbul Modern Sanat Müzesi; the National Center for Contemporary Arts, Moscow; and the Kiasma Museum, Helsinki.

 

Her artistic practice critically addresses issues related to identity, power, tradition, gender, and symbolic violence, working across media such as performance, video, installation, photography, and drawing. Through a direct, ironic, and often provocative visual language, Albarracín revisits deeply rooted cultural imaginaries, placing history, folklore, and social rituals under tension.

 

She has participated in major international biennials, including the Quebec Biennial (2017), Busan Biennale (2014), Venice Biennale (2005), São Tomé and Príncipe Biennial (2008), Moscow Biennale (2005), and Seville Biennial (2004).

 

Many of her projects have been developed in historically and symbolically significant sites in Spain and internationally, such as the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center, Washington, D.C. (2023); Tabacalera, Promoción del Arte, Madrid (2018); Théâtre National de Chaillot, Paris (2015); Musée National Pablo Picasso La Guerre et la Paix, Vallauris (2014); Les Moulins, Centre d’art le LAIT, Albi (2010); and the Reales Atarazanas, Seville (2004).

 

Her recent exhibitions include presentations at the Musée des Beaux-Arts d’Angers, Angers (2023); Musée Goya Castres, Castres (2023); Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo, Seville (2022); Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology (MAAT), Lisbon (2022); Centro Galego de Arte Contemporáneo, Santiago de Compostela (2021); Mint Museum Uptown, North Carolina (2020); MAIIAM Contemporary Art Museum, Chiang Mai (2019); The Abattoirs Museum – Frac Occitanie, Toulouse (2019); Musée de l’Homme, Paris (2019); Musée National Picasso-Paris (2018); and CAC Málaga (2016), among others.

 

In 2020, she was awarded the title of Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture, and in 2023 she received the Medal of the City of Seville.