Born in Valladolid in 1981, Belén Rodríguez is a Spanish interdisciplinary artist. Her art encompasses a wide variety of media, including expanded painting, sculpture, textiles, video and public-space interventions. Her work stems from a conjugation of different substrates of the world we inhabit, which she shapes in pictorial and sculptural form. In her processes, she incorporates the logics of the capitalist production system, which she then subverts, and traditional knowledge, which she champions. She also introduces a critique of colonialism and processes of art investigation oriented towards specific themes and a general reflection on the limits of the media with which she works. Her pieces emerge out of an accumulation of practices, knowledge and experiences, into lengthy processes that gradually take on different forms.
Rodríguez has an MA from the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and an arts degree from the Complutense University of Madrid. She has participated in a number of art residency schemes, including Flora ars+natura (Bogota, 2018); Artista X Artista (Havana, 2016); Hooper Projects (Los Angeles, 2015), the Spanish Academy in Rome (2012), and BMUKK (Tokyo, 2009). In 2015, she received a Startstipendium grant from the Austrian Ministry of Culture. In 2011, she won Caja Madrid's Generation Prize (having received an honourable mention in 2009). In 2021 she was shortlisted for the Fifth Cervezas Alhambra Emerging Art Award. In 2022, she was awarded a Fundación Botín grant for plastic arts (Santander, 2022).
Her solo exhibitions include Sal Metálica [Metal Salt], at the Patio Herreriano Museum (Valladolid, 2023); I Turn Chilli Red at Josh Lilley (London, 2019); PAINTUNG, at the Patio Herreriano Museum (2019); Algodón naranja en la bella sombra [Orange Cotton in the Beautiful Shade], at Galería Alarón Criado (Seville, 2019), and Como materia dotada de su propia forma [Like Matter Endowed with Its Own Form], at Galería Juan Silió (Santander, 2019). She has also taken part in numerous group exhibitions, including Escena I. Hacer paisaje [Scene I. Making Landscape], at IVAM (Valencia, 2024); Coalition, at La Gaite Lyrique (Paris, 2024); ¡Salvad mis amores! [Save my Loves!], at Collegium (Arévalo, 2023); To Weave the Sky: Textile Abstractions from the Jorge M. Pérez Collection, at El Espacio 23 (Miami, 2023); Tomar la casa [Take the House], at the Spanish Academy in Rome (2022); La cuestión es ir tirando [It's All About Keeping Going], at the Spanish Cultural Centre in Mexico (2020); One Day I Stumbled upon a Meteorite, at the Fabra i Coats LOOP festival (Barcelona, 2019); Querer parecer noche [Wanting to Resemble Night], at CA2M (Madrid, 2018) and Leaning Tower of Pisa, at DXIX Projects (Los Angeles, 2017).
Rodríguez's work is found in several public and private collections, including the Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo (Móstoles), the Institut Valencià d'Art Modern (Valencia), the Banco de España Collection (Madrid), the Royal Academy of Spain in Rome (Rome), the Austrian Ministry of Culture (Vienna), Obra Social Montemadrid (Madrid), the TBA-21 Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary (Madrid), the Hooper Projects (Los Angeles) and the Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogotá, among others.
Born in Valladolid in 1981, Belén Rodríguez is a Spanish interdisciplinary artist. Her art encompasses a wide variety of media, including expanded painting, sculpture, textiles, video and public-space interventions. Her work stems from a conjugation of different substrates of the world we inhabit, which she shapes in pictorial and sculptural form. In her processes, she incorporates the logics of the capitalist production system, which she then subverts, and traditional knowledge, which she champions. She also introduces a critique of colonialism and processes of art investigation oriented towards specific themes and a general reflection on the limits of the media with which she works. Her pieces emerge out of an accumulation of practices, knowledge and experiences, into lengthy processes that gradually take on different forms.
Rodríguez has an MA from the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and an arts degree from the Complutense University of Madrid. She has participated in a number of art residency schemes, including Flora ars+natura (Bogota, 2018); Artista X Artista (Havana, 2016); Hooper Projects (Los Angeles, 2015), the Spanish Academy in Rome (2012), and BMUKK (Tokyo, 2009). In 2015, she received a Startstipendium grant from the Austrian Ministry of Culture. In 2011, she won Caja Madrid's Generation Prize (having received an honourable mention in 2009). In 2021 she was shortlisted for the Fifth Cervezas Alhambra Emerging Art Award. In 2022, she was awarded a Fundación Botín grant for plastic arts (Santander, 2022).
Her solo exhibitions include Sal Metálica [Metal Salt], at the Patio Herreriano Museum (Valladolid, 2023); I Turn Chilli Red at Josh Lilley (London, 2019); PAINTUNG, at the Patio Herreriano Museum (2019); Algodón naranja en la bella sombra [Orange Cotton in the Beautiful Shade], at Galería Alarón Criado (Seville, 2019), and Como materia dotada de su propia forma [Like Matter Endowed with Its Own Form], at Galería Juan Silió (Santander, 2019). She has also taken part in numerous group exhibitions, including Escena I. Hacer paisaje [Scene I. Making Landscape], at IVAM (Valencia, 2024); Coalition, at La Gaite Lyrique (Paris, 2024); ¡Salvad mis amores! [Save my Loves!], at Collegium (Arévalo, 2023); To Weave the Sky: Textile Abstractions from the Jorge M. Pérez Collection, at El Espacio 23 (Miami, 2023); Tomar la casa [Take the House], at the Spanish Academy in Rome (2022); La cuestión es ir tirando [It's All About Keeping Going], at the Spanish Cultural Centre in Mexico (2020); One Day I Stumbled upon a Meteorite, at the Fabra i Coats LOOP festival (Barcelona, 2019); Querer parecer noche [Wanting to Resemble Night], at CA2M (Madrid, 2018) and Leaning Tower of Pisa, at DXIX Projects (Los Angeles, 2017).
Rodríguez's work is found in several public and private collections, including the Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo (Móstoles), the Institut Valencià d'Art Modern (Valencia), the Banco de España Collection (Madrid), the Royal Academy of Spain in Rome (Rome), the Austrian Ministry of Culture (Vienna), Obra Social Montemadrid (Madrid), the TBA-21 Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary (Madrid), the Hooper Projects (Los Angeles) and the Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogotá, among others.