![LAURA LIO. savia y sangre [sap and blood]](/sites/default/files/Laura Lio foto cabecera web_0.png)
LAURA LIO. savia y sangre [sap and blood]
File
In the work of Laura Lio (Buenos Aires, 1967, living in Madrid since 1990), strong social commitment (political, ecological, feminist, collective, contemporary) mingles with an endorsement of rigorous, methodical, slow work, without shortcuts.
Behind her drawings and objects is a thorough observation and a prior analysis seeking out the internal order that she observes in nature (the growth of a tree, the veins of a leaf, the stylized shapes of an isolated branch), or the meaning of animal-built constructions (nests are a good example): solid structures in objects that may even be fragile and light.
Natural order, images, the language of art and words; an oeuvre that grows slowly, often in series, looking for alternatives; posing unsettling questions for the viewer; the rejection of chance; the formal synthesis that she knows how to combine with disturbing poetic foundations: ideas that may be perceived on contemplation of this subtle, extremely personal work.
Since the end of the 80’s, Lio has created a kind of library in which books are treated as visual poems-objects, some with a very direct critical content; others resembling a summary of echoes, seductions, experiences, and memories; and a third group unfolds before us in the manner of an oriental landscape.
Her production also includes some other more direct and urban works, which allow her to use walls as a medium. She intervenes these with successive advertising posters containing very different messages, which fragmented and connected, pose direct and, at the same time, poetic comments on reality.
With work in collections, such as the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid and the Museo Patio Herreriano in Valladolid, Laura Lio has public, land art-related intervention projects and research that she has compiled in publications such as Refugios del cuerpo y la imaginación [Shelters for the body and the imagination], an evocative essay on the –visual, functional, poetic– relationships between animal constructions, architecture and the works of contemporary artists.
Miguel Fernández-Cid and Pilar Souto Soto
Curators of the exhibition
GENERAL INFORMATION / ACTIVITIES
Schools Programme
In collaboration with “la Caixa” Foundation
Until June 21, 2025
Times: 10.00 to 11.30 and 11.30 to 13.00 Tuesdays to Fridays
Reservations: tel. +34 986 113900 Ext. 200 / 986 113900 Ext. 308 / Email: comunicacion@marcovigo.com
Visits and workshops addressed to NGOs and CBOs
In collaboration with “la Caixa” Foundation
Times: ‘À la carte’, adapted to each group’s needs
Reservations: tel. +34 986 113900 Ext. 200 / 986 113900 Ext. 308 / Email: comunicacion@marcovigo.com
Summer Workshops for Children
In collaboration with “la Caixa” Foundation
From July 8, 2025
Times: Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 10.30 to 12.00 (groups) and from 12.00 to 13.30 (3 to 6 years). Thursdays from 11.00 to 12.30 (7 to 12 years)
Reservations: tel. +34 986 113900 Ext. 200 / Email: recepcion@marcovigo.com
Information and guided tours
Gallery staff are available for queries and information about the exhibition. Additionally tours are available: every day at 18.00. ‘À la carte’ visits for groups, for reservations please call: Tel. +34 986 113900 / +34 986 113908.
Photograph 1: Laura Lio. Habito la posibilidad, decollage y collage (detail), 2022
Photograph miniature: Laura Lio. savia sangre (detail), 2024
Artists
Laura Lio
Born in Buenos Aires, visual artist, writer and editor Laura Lio holds a PhD in Fine Arts from the University of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain, and she has been living in Madrid since 1990. She is currently involved with interdisciplinary projects across the fields of sculpture, drawings, site specific installations, artist books and poetry and sound. In 2015 she began her ongoing publishing project PEZPLATA Editions, publishing books resulting from the dialogue between poets and artists. In 2022 her poetry book entitled Esporas (Ed. Dosparedesy1puente, Madrid) was published and in 2023 her essay Refugios del cuerpo y de la imaginación [Shelters of Body and Imagination] (Ed. Asimétricas, Madrid), a book on Ecosystem, Art and Architecture.
In January, 2024 was invited to the workshop “Artivism in the European elections 2024: Involving cultural actors” at the European Parliament in Brussels. Since 2023 is part of “Red Conceptualismos del Sur”, a platform for research, discussion and collective positioning from Latin America.
Over the past 30 years she has dedicated herself to research and creativity in the field of Fine Arts, with special interest on the potential for synergies between image, poetic word, and sound. Her focus on sculpture includes its practice in exhibition spaces and in public locations, along with land art and its integration with landscape architecture. A current interest is working of installations and site specific projects that poetically respond to the architectural presence and social history of the sites.
She has exhibited her works with 22 individual exhibitions in numerous countries, including Spain, Argentina, France and Italy, and she has participated in more than 77 group exhibitions throughout Europe, Argentina and China, such as El retorno de lo imaginario. Realismos entre el XIX y el XXI (MNCARS, Madrid, 2010), and Printed Matter (MoMA, NY, 2018). Her sculptures and drawings have been placed in museums as well as being held in public and private art collections. A number of her sculptures can be found in public locations, in O Grove (Pontevedra, Spain), Odenwald (Darmstadt, Germany), Centro Franco Basaglia (Livorno, Italy) and Strömsfors, Sweden.
