romina
rivero
artist statement
The links between the “clear self” and the “diffused self,” medicine and philosophy, intertwine with biopolitical violence in my work. Within this framework, I engage with neoliberal Western medicine and traditional medicine, as well as classical Taoist philosophy and contemporary thought. This investigation reveals state fabrications that, from the 15th century to the present, are embodied in clinical discourses and reflect biopower. I acknowledge the complexity of the female experience: the destruction of female power within medicine, biological and social reproduction, and political and social creativity.
From an artistic and medical praxis, my work dwells between the poetic and the biopolitical. It explores pain, the open wound, the healing process, and the scar as living forms of consciousness and presence. A spell to give voice to the silenced, to let wounds breathe, and to beautify the afflicted.
Fragility is recognized in the work as an act of diaphaneity, resistance, and transmutation, opening space for reflection on the human experience. The body as a political and sensitive territory, both intimate and public. An aesthetic that restores the sublime, sowing dignity, equity, and justice.
I affirm vulnerability as a revolutionary gesture: living possibilities.
bio
Romina Rivero, 1982.
Graduated in Fine Arts from the ULL in Multidisciplinary Contemporary Art (2014) and Masters in Traditional Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture, specializing in Manopuncture from the CAO (2016-2020).
In her career there are individual exhibitions such as Primum non nocere_lo primero es cuidar closed in August of last year at CIC EL Almacén de César Manrique, Ikigay_Anatomy of the fireflies at the Artizar Gallery last year and En Fuga at the SAC (Tenerife) both in 2021, as well as Resistencias at Hybrid Art Fair'19 (Madrid) again with Artizar. In 2018 she starred in El espíritu no es un hueso at TEA (Tenerife Espacio de Las Artes), and in 2017 he presented Ad Intus, the space we inhabit at La Regenta (Gran Canaria).
She has also participated in various national and international collective exhibitions such as: V Contemporary Graphic Salon at the Nahim Isaías Museum (Ecuador) in 2022, and Decomposition/Expansion for the Francis Naranjo Foundation (L.P. from Gran Canaria) or Dúo Project at the Fair JUSTMAD in 2021. Years before, in 2019, Alégrame ese Pascuas opened at “Factoría de Arte y Desarrollo” and SeAlquila Futuro (8th edition) both in Madrid, Benches for Europe in France, and the III Biennale di Genova (Italy) where it receives the Critics Award.
Artizar Gallery presents her at NOW'15 as a young contemporary emerging artist in the Canary Islands arts scene, and that same year she won a competition for the exteriors of the European Parliament (Strasbourg), where one of her pieces is currently located. She has been awarded other prizes such as: the NOW'19 Scholarship by the Artizar Gallery, the 2018 Artistic Residency at TEA, or the Sculpture Contest for the contemporary SEGAI author building of the University of La Laguna in 2014, hosting since then in its headquarters the work of the artist.
She has presented her debut for the VII edition of MMM (Mujeres Mirando Mujeres) and participated in MAV Okupa los Museos. Currently, is preparing her next objectives: individual exhibition at the Modus Operandi Gallery (Madrid), collective exhibition at Sala Bretón de Astillero (Cantabria), art residency at RARA (Málaga), public presentation of the unprecedented exhibition project Declarations, prayers and treatises in La Regenta, among others. Her work is in both private and public national and international.
