Cristina Iglesias started studying Chemistry but then switched to drawing and ceramics before focusing on sculpture in 1980 and 1982 at the Chelsea School of Arts in London. She then developed a new concept of sculpture that includes context and space as part of the work. In 1988, she was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study in the USA.
Her work experiments with a plethora of materials including metals such as copper and steel, alabaster, resin, crystal, esparto grass, concrete and water. She also uses engraving as a for of expression, and everything necessary to create new spaces with natural echoes that hide and insinuate more than they show. The experience of the viewer is the cornerstone of her work. Space is therefore dramatised by an exercise in light and shadow that draws on the penetrable, architectural forms in her pieces. For example, mazes of structures appear frequently in her works: they enable viewers to relate to works in a different way each time they enter them, as if becoming entangled in a wood. “My pieces are only finished once they are installed and each exhibition creates specific resources and is sensitive to a certain space”, she explains.
Cristina Iglesias represented Spain at the Venice Bienniale in 1986 and 1993, won the National Award for Plastic Arts in 1999 and the Grand Prix for Best Living Artist at Arco 2009. In 2012 she was awarded the Berliner Kunstpreis.
During her artistic career, Iglesias has exhibited at the Juana de Aizpuru Gallery (Seville, 1984); the Musée d’Art Contemporain de Bordeaux (Bordeaux, France, 1987); the Reina Sofía (Madrid, 1988, 1993, 1997, 2005, 2012 and 2013); Malaga Fine Arts Museum (1988); the Art Gallery of York University (Toronto, Canada, 1992); the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao (1997); the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (New York, 1997); the Whitechapel Gallery (London, 2003); the Marian Goodman Gallery (New York, 2005 and 2011); the Casa de la Moneda (Madrid, 2015); and the Centro Botín (Santander, 2018), among other venues.
Her most important permanent public works are those at the gates and entrance of the Museo Nacional del Prado, Three Waters in Toledo, Forgotten Streams in the City of London, Deep Fountain in Leopold de Waelplaats square in Antwerp and From the Underground in the Renzo Piano building at the Centro Botín.
Cristina Iglesias started studying Chemistry but then switched to drawing and ceramics before focusing on sculpture in 1980 and 1982 at the Chelsea School of Arts in London. She then developed a new concept of sculpture that includes context and space as part of the work. In 1988, she was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study in the USA.
Her work experiments with a plethora of materials including metals such as copper and steel, alabaster, resin, crystal, esparto grass, concrete and water. She also uses engraving as a for of expression, and everything necessary to create new spaces with natural echoes that hide and insinuate more than they show. The experience of the viewer is the cornerstone of her work. Space is therefore dramatised by an exercise in light and shadow that draws on the penetrable, architectural forms in her pieces. For example, mazes of structures appear frequently in her works: they enable viewers to relate to works in a different way each time they enter them, as if becoming entangled in a wood. “My pieces are only finished once they are installed and each exhibition creates specific resources and is sensitive to a certain space”, she explains.
Cristina Iglesias represented Spain at the Venice Bienniale in 1986 and 1993, won the National Award for Plastic Arts in 1999 and the Grand Prix for Best Living Artist at Arco 2009. In 2012 she was awarded the Berliner Kunstpreis.
During her artistic career, Iglesias has exhibited at the Juana de Aizpuru Gallery (Seville, 1984); the Musée d’Art Contemporain de Bordeaux (Bordeaux, France, 1987); the Reina Sofía (Madrid, 1988, 1993, 1997, 2005, 2012 and 2013); Malaga Fine Arts Museum (1988); the Art Gallery of York University (Toronto, Canada, 1992); the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao (1997); the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (New York, 1997); the Whitechapel Gallery (London, 2003); the Marian Goodman Gallery (New York, 2005 and 2011); the Casa de la Moneda (Madrid, 2015); and the Centro Botín (Santander, 2018), among other venues.
Her most important permanent public works are those at the gates and entrance of the Museo Nacional del Prado, Three Waters in Toledo, Forgotten Streams in the City of London, Deep Fountain in Leopold de Waelplaats square in Antwerp and From the Underground in the Renzo Piano building at the Centro Botín.