DORIS SALCEDO

Doris Salcedo is one of today's most internationally respected South American sculptors. After receiving a BFA from the Universidad de Bogotá Jorge Tadeo Lozano in 1980, she completed an MA in Fine Art at New York University. She later returned to her native city, where she taught at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia.

Salcedo’s sculptures and installations function as political and mental archaeology, profoundly affected by the unsettled political situation in her country. Her works such as Unland: The Orphan’s Tunic (1997) and the La Casa Viuda (1994) take ordinary household items, transforming them into memorials for victims of the Civil War in Colombia.

She has featured in many international group exhibitions, including ‘The New Décor’, Hayward Gallery, London (2010); ‘NeoHooDoo’, PS1 Contemporary Art Centre, New York and The Menil Collection, Houston (2008); the 8th Istanbul Biennial (2003); Documenta XI, Kassel, (2002) and XXIV São Paolo Biennial (1998).

Her solo exhibitions include ‘Plegaria Muda’ which has been shown throughout the world (2010 - 2013); ‘Neither’, White Cube, London (2004); ‘Unland/Doris Salcedo’, The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York (1998-1999) and ‘Atrabiliarios’, L.A. Louver Gallery, Los Angeles (1996).

In 2007 she was the eighth artist to be commissioned to produce work for the turbine hall, Tate Modern with her piece ‘Shibboleth’, a 167-metre-long crack in the hall's floor.Her awards include the Ordway Prize, from the Penny McCall Foundation (2005); and a Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation Grant (1995).