Ángela de la Cruz

ANGELA DE LA CRUZ (La Coruña, 1965).
"Dislocated painting II (orange)", 2001.
Oil on canvas.
Provenance: Anthony Wilkinson Gallery, London.
Measurements: 53 x 61 x 6 cm.

In the late nineties, the London-based Spanish artist Ángela de la Cruz surprised the art world with her "everyday paintings". These are monochrome abstract paintings that, once mounted on a stretcher frame, she subjected to a process of manipulation. Her series of "Dislocated Paintings" from the early 2000s show tears, as if they had been victims of an act of vandalism. Philosophical reflection and humor are combined in such daring proposals. Angela reflects on the status of the artistic object, but the tears in the canvas are also metaphors for emotional fractures.

Ángela de la Cruz studied Philosophy and Letters at the University of Santiago de Compostela, although she soon moved to London, where she furthered her studies at Chelsea College of Art, Goldsmith College and the Slade School of Fine Arts. In 2010 she was the first Spaniard to be nominated for the Turner Prize, for her exhibition "After", which she presented at the Candem Center, and she is currently a lecturer at the Chelsea College of Art and Design in London, the city where she lives and works. In 2017 she received the Premio Nacional de Artes Plásticas.