LUCÍA MADRIZ Costa Rica
Auckland Art Gallery - NEW Gallery

Art, for me, is an excuse to experiment. I am not interested in any specific technique; when I think of a piece, its content already suggests the materials I have to use.

In my case art wants to become a question and never an answer. This means that art is just a platform to present different issues and so to give us a space to think about, that we as viewers, can take or reject.

One of the most important aspects of my work is the communication of ideas. My work has been mostly concerned with issues about inequity and difference.

The installations, made of basic grains are based on the concern that many people share: that of alimentary sovereignty and genetically modified food.

In Latin-America and the Caribbean, through CAFTA - a Free Trade Treaty with US - these genetically manipulated crops have been introduced without public consultation, safety regulations and are sold without identification.

It is not known how they could affect human health since thus far there has not been any interest to find out about it.

Due to the fact that these crops are accompanied by a total dependency economic model, they will affect directly the rural population, those who are the most vulnerable in the continent.

- Lucía Madriz

Background

Lucía Madriz was born in San José, Costa Rica in 1973 where she continues to live and work. Solo exhibitions include Erscheinen, Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe, 2004 and Alteridades, Jacob Karpio Gallery, San José, 2006. Recent group exhibitions include Art for the Children, Paniamor Fundacíon, Hochschule fuer Gestaltung, Karlsruhe, Germany, 2004; 4ta Edición Salón de Arte Digital, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo del Zulia, Maracaibo, 2005; Art Basel Miami 2005, Jacob Karpio Gallery, Miami; Landings 2, Centro de Artes Visuales Mérida, México, 2006; Second Central American Emerging Artist Prize, Museo de Arte y Diseño Contemporáneo, San José, 2006; One More of Women, Some Women Extra, Centro Cultural de España, San José, 2006; Duck Soup, Centro Cultura e Histórico José Figueres Ferrer, San Ramón de Alajuela, 2006 and Landings 3, Centro León, Santiago, Dominican Republic, 2006. In 2003, Madriz was awarded a prize at the Second Central American Contest for Videomaking, Museo de Arte y Diseño Contemporáneo, San José and a scholarship for foreign artists from the German Academic Exchange Service, Hochschule fur Gestaltung, Karlsruhe, Germany. For further reading see Tamara Díaz Bringas, En el Trazo de las Constelaciones, (San José: Editorial Centro Cultural de España y Perro Azul, 2003).