Carmen Calvo

CARMEN CALVO, (Valencia, 1950).
"Palette", 1993.
Mixed media (collage and clay) on board.
Framing made by the artist.
Signed, dated and titled on the back.
Measurements: 46 x 33 cm; 53 x 40 cm (frame).
The transgressive character and at the same time full of a great poetic load of Carmen Calvo is appreciated in all its fullness in this work. A work that links with the image of order and accumulation associated with the artist. In it, small pieces of clay are superimposed on the paper and introduce us into a rhythm of sequences reminiscent of a collector's display case, an influence derived from Calvo's discovery of the Egyptian and Mesopotamian art collections at the Louvre Museum in Paris. As for the use of clay, it is worth mentioning how the artist resorts to this material on numerous occasions, although not using it as an ornamental element (in its ceramic, enameled or polychrome mode), but as a mundane fragment, stripping it of superfluous elements, that is to say, ennobling it.
Carmen Calvo studied at the Schools of Arts and Crafts and Fine Arts in Valencia, and graduated in advertising in 1970. She would later broaden her training thanks to scholarships from the Ministry of Culture (1980), the Casa de Velázquez in Madrid (1983-85) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, for her residence in Paris (1985-92). During these years Calvo began to be recognized, receiving distinctions such as the I LaSalle Seiko Painting Prize in Barcelona (1985), the Alfons Roig of the Diputación Valenciana (1989), a scholarship in the I Biennial Martínez Guerricabeitia of the University of Valencia (1989), and the selection for the XLVII Biennial of Venice (1997). The artist had begun her exhibition activity in 1969, taking part in a group show held at the Círculo Universitario de Valencia. She made her individual debut in 1976 at the Temps gallery in her native city, and since then she has shown her work individually in various cities in Spain and the United States, as well as in other countries in Europe, America and Africa. Works by Carmen Calvo can currently be seen in art institutions, museums and private collections around the world, including the Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Reina Sofia in Madrid, the Marugame Hirai in Kobe, the MACBA in Barcelona, the Fonds National d'Art Contemporain in Paris, the IVAM in Valencia, the Chase Manhattan Bank collection in New York, etc.