b. 1986, Barquisimeto, VE
Lives and works in Miami, FL
Bernadette Despujols‘ practice encompasses sculpture, video, and installation, but is primarily focused on figurative painting to explore her experiences of intimacy and feminine embodiment. Women, girls, mothers, grandmothers, aunts, and friends are displayed in all of their bodily extremity, slightness, beauty and tenderness. Her surfaces tend to be heavily worked, filled with frenetic brushstrokes that vacillate between impasto and stark retraction. In some areas, her paint has been eroded to the point that the underpainting is visible, giving a topographical quality to her portraits. She has said of her work: “I want to explore the vast ocean in which the woman swims [...] one that goes way beyond those absurd expectations of what women should be.”
Bernadette Despujols (b. 1986, Barquisimeto, VE; lives and works in Miami, FL) studied Architecture at the Universidad Central de Venezuela and the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, and graduated with an MFA in Visual Arts from CalArts in 2010. She has had solo exhibitions with Rachel Uffner Gallery, New York, NY; Spinello Projects, Miami, FL; Arts + Leisure Projects, New York, NY; and LVL3 Gallery, Chicago, IL; among others. Her work is represented in the public collections of ICA Miami, FL; and El Espacio 23, Miami, FL.