Born in Valencia and now based in New York, artist Elena del RIVERO focuses on painting, drawing and works on paper, her source of inspiration being the existential baggage around her and elements captured on a daily basis from life. Using the expressive potential of many diverse codes and materials, Elena’s multidisciplinary work encompasses many fields: drawing, weaving, sewing, embroidery and the written word, all subtly intersecting in powerful, dynamic interplay. Her projects are developed slowly and meticulously, with the construction of visual narratives whose carefully chosen titles lend themselves to open interpretation and multiple readings. Her interest in processes of degradation and decadence lead her to reuse remains, decaying documents and discarded materials, which are put together and grammatically reorganised to bring new life and significance to them. Her concern with the passage of time and the recovery of memory is also very present in her videographic work, as well as her creations in the domains of photography, sculpture and performance art.
Elena del Rivero studied Philosophy at the University of Valencia and later completed a Diploma in English Literature at the University of Cambridge. While she did further literary studies, her childhood interest in drawing was rekindled and she had the opportunity to explore in greater depth lessons received in her childhood by the architects hired by her father, especially the insights into chiaroscuro initially afforded by Don Manuel Sigüenza.
Between 1978 and 1984, while pursuing her work in drawing, she did an apprenticeship at an engraving workshop led by Oscar Manesi (1978-84). In 1988, she was granted a scholarship to the Real Academia Española de Bellas Artes in Rome, where she began to experiment with composite geometry and serialization.
In 1991, she settled in New York. She has been awarded scholarships by, among other entities, the Pollock-Krasber Foundation (1991-95); the New York Foundation for the Arts (2001 and 2002) and the Rockefeller Foundation (2005).
Her work forms part, among other collections, of that of MoMA (NY); Fog Art Museum at Harvard University (Cambridge); National Gallery of Art (Washington D.C.); Baltimore Art Museum (Baltimore); Colby College Museum (Waterville); Pollock Gallery at Southern Methodist University (Dallas); Birmingham Museum of Art (Alabama); Institut Valenciá d’Art Modern (Valencia); Centro Galego de Arte Contemporáneo (Santiago de Compostela); Museo Patio Herreriano (Valladolid); Caixa de Pensions (Barcelona); Fundación Caja Burgos (Burgos); Centro Vasco de Arte Contemporáneo (Vitoria); Centro de Fotografía de la Universidad de Salamanca (Salamanca) and Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (Madrid).
Over the last twenty years, Elena del Rivero has experimented with the ritualising potential of mending, articulating “knots of connections and relations” into a process of aesthetic inquiry, profoundly rooted in her own life and in salient moments of recent history, such as the attacks on the World Trade Centre, which have shaken the very foundations of our culture. Her projects Letter to the mother (1991-2002), [Swi:t] Home], Chant (2001-2006), The Book of Dust (2006) and Flying Letters (2009-2012), delve into the process of loss and navigate that mysterious realm that links the intimate enclaves of experience and memory with that which is deeply human and universal, and common to us all.
Elena del Rivero lives and works in NY (USA).
Elena del Rivero studied Philosophy at the University of Valencia and later completed a Diploma in English Literature at the University of Cambridge. While she did further literary studies, her childhood interest in drawing was rekindled and she had the opportunity to explore in greater depth lessons received in her childhood by the architects hired by her father, especially the insights into chiaroscuro initially afforded by Don Manuel Sigüenza.
Between 1978 and 1984, while pursuing her work in drawing, she did an apprenticeship at an engraving workshop led by Oscar Manesi (1978-84). In 1988, she was granted a scholarship to the Real Academia Española de Bellas Artes in Rome, where she began to experiment with composite geometry and serialization.
In 1991, she settled in New York. She has been awarded scholarships by, among other entities, the Pollock-Krasber Foundation (1991-95); the New York Foundation for the Arts (2001 and 2002) and the Rockefeller Foundation (2005).
Her work forms part, among other collections, of that of MoMA (NY); Fog Art Museum at Harvard University (Cambridge); National Gallery of Art (Washington D.C.); Baltimore Art Museum (Baltimore); Colby College Museum (Waterville); Pollock Gallery at Southern Methodist University (Dallas); Birmingham Museum of Art (Alabama); Institut Valenciá d’Art Modern (Valencia); Centro Galego de Arte Contemporáneo (Santiago de Compostela); Museo Patio Herreriano (Valladolid); Caixa de Pensions (Barcelona); Fundación Caja Burgos (Burgos); Centro Vasco de Arte Contemporáneo (Vitoria); Centro de Fotografía de la Universidad de Salamanca (Salamanca) and Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (Madrid).
Over the last twenty years, Elena del Rivero has experimented with the ritualising potential of mending, articulating “knots of connections and relations” into a process of aesthetic inquiry, profoundly rooted in her own life and in salient moments of recent history, such as the attacks on the World Trade Centre, which have shaken the very foundations of our culture. Her projects Letter to the mother (1991-2002), [Swi:t] Home], Chant (2001-2006), The Book of Dust (2006) and Flying Letters (2009-2012), delve into the process of loss and navigate that mysterious realm that links the intimate enclaves of experience and memory with that which is deeply human and universal, and common to us all.
Elena del Rivero lives and works in NY (USA).