Carmen de Ayora

Ayora, Valencia, 1968

I managed to leave my village at the age of 18 to study Fine Arts in Valencia. I did sculpture, large and heavy sculptures, and I had something to tell that was very hidden. Prizes and art festivals, Valencia, Alicante, Zaragoza, it did not give me much satisfaction. 1993 and 1995; Paris with Erasmus Scholarship, Belgium in Les Brasseurs. I worked with poverty in materials, abstract thought as a resource to face reality, drawing and collage in a leap towards sculpture. Arte Joven, Madrid, the themes came from intimacy and emerged in architecture and the body. 1996, Barcelona, Quam, an exhibition with Creatures, publications, I worked with texts from conceptual radicalism without abandoning drawing and the flexibility it brings. 1999, I decided to separate myself from the maelstrom of the art system, I formed a group on the fringes of the predominant trends, we were united by private performances and self-consumption exhibitions that we shared with friends, and we advocated painting as a medium and personal theme. 2012, Alegría Gallery, I managed to unite painting and conceptual art, personal concerns and social criticism. 2014 EtHall, drawings in continuous dialogue with collective artists. 2015 Halfhouse, Free time, social criticism and drawing. 2018, Fabra i Coats and residency at La Escocesa, where I travelled between being myself and belonging to the group, a conflict that accompanies my existence and materialises in drawing, painting, performance, text, installation, always with poverty in hand. Currently, I continue to work with these parameters and I am preparing a solo exhibition for La Capella where expanded painting emancipates itself in favour of disobedience and desire. C. de A. C. de A.