IVANA DE VIVANCO

Ivana de Vivanco’s work uses painting, installation and sculpture to revisit episodes of history and rethink how they are told. Addressing themes such as colonialism, oral histories and cultural belonging the artist twists historical discourse to impower the historically oppressed.

The work that she has made on the residency pivots around the women that have historically taken the forefront of uprisings and played an integral role in defending their communities. Often overlooked by history in favour of their male counterparts, de Vivanco ensures that these women take centre stage in her paintings. The works are a careful balancing act of negative space, block colour and rendered forms. Long limbs drape over tables and figures interact over different planes, exacerbating an underlying strangeness.

In Study for a Portrait of Captain Ann Carter, 2022 we see the artists depiction of Captain Ann Carter leading the Maldon grain riots of 1629. Later hung for her role in the uprising, Carter was specifically vilified for naming herself a captain, serving as an example of long-standing patriarchal rage towards woman who deem to assume a ‘man’s position’. De Vivanco’s Captain Carter carries a baby on her back and a sack of grain at her waist, reminding us women like Carter not only fight against oppression but also hold together their families and are pillars of their communities.

Solo Shows include; New Positions, Art Cologne, Galerie Anita Beckers + Kornfeld, Cologne, DE, 2022; Temple of Inversion, 68 Projects, Berlin, DE;SPLITS AND SLIPS: The disobedient Banana, Breach, Miami, USA, 2022; Two pennies for myself and tea, SCAN Projects, London, GB; Blind Eye, Casa de Indias and The RYDER Projects, Cádiz, ES, 2021; amongst others.

Group shows include; Magical Realism Revisited, Bank Mab Society, Shanghai, CN, 2022; Artbo, Instituto de Visión, Bogotá, COL, 2022; DISSONANCE:PLATFORM GERMANY, curated by Mark Gisbourne and Christoph Tannert, Künstlerhaus Bethanien Berlin, DE, 2022; Chronicles 5, Galerie Droste, Berlin, DE, 2022; Looking Back Ahead, Galerie Kornfeld, Berlin, DE, 2022; amongst others.