Dolores Sanchez Calvo was born in Santiago de Compostela, Spain. An initial education in linguistics at the University of Santiago led to the development of an anatomical sensibility towards communication. Following this the artist moved to Holland to study multimedia and photography, after which followed a residency in New York. Since relocating to London in 1998, the artist has frequently exhibited internationally, most recently at Risk Management, Elastic Residence, (with Deej Fabyc, Daisy Delaney, Mark Quinn and Beat Streuli), Creekside Open 2011, selected by Phyllida Barlow, Premios Focus-Abengoa, Seville (2010) and at Quatrox Quatro, Vernice Art Fair, Forli Italy (2008). In the UK she has enjoyed prominent success as a finalist in the National Portrait Gallery’s 2007 Photographic Portrait competition and as a winner of the Westminster Arts Photographic Award, 2008. . Collectors now include Brompton Hospital, Westminster Arts, Elastic Residence, Vernice Art Fair and private collectors across Europe & USA.
Dolores Sanchez Calvo is an artist working in a range of media, painting, photography, installations, etc...Her work often operates within the politics of trauma & mourning. Decontextualising the original cause of trauma the artist depicts an inconography of man's alienation from himself, society and his environment where the direct link to the cause of the trauma is lost. The ideas fuse with the Zeitgest of gloom, conflicts & disasters surrounding us on a daily base.
The work of DSC poses a cardinal question: how does the human relate to humanity?
Through a characteristic linear dynamism, the artist creates spaces where the human is allowed to stand, to recoil, to lie or to lean, formally supported by the depicted surroundings. Exploring the relationship between space and its human occupation, Sanchez Calvo builds a world where the figure gently bleeds into the architectonic fabric of society: walls, barriers, doors, thresholds and horizons. The outside world imbues a human curvature; corners and crevices, joins and openings become skeletons of the built environment. Similarly the human form is skeletal in its construction with legs and arms being manipulated into a unique human architecture. Doll-like, DSC’s figures are uncannily assembled, the uncanniness compounded by an often lithic tonality.
The human form is continually isolated from the wider concept of human space, whilst maintaining a spatial stereometric quality. The result is a complex dialogue between human alienation and worldly interaction, between man’s modern dislocation and his existential yearning to engage with his surroundings. A defining characteristic of Sanchez Calvo’s work is the interdependency between subject and surrounding, the one dependent on the other for true definition. This interdependency leads to entrapment: the figure is both confined and restrained by its own spatial reference. Pervading Sanchez Calvo’s art is a keenly felt sense of claustrophobia, heightened by a stifling flatness and the use of a reduced colour palette.
Metaphorically these pictorial spaces become Orwellian worlds of human dislocation, referenced by a complex layering of history and popular culture. A fragmented contemporary cultural iconography is used to scrutinise the very building blocks of man’s urban territory. Taking an anatomical eye to the world around, the artist seeks to explore the relationship between identity and memory, as constructed through the object-defined world. The common language and memories of society are challenged, provoking man into radical disjunction with the world around him. Far removed from the collective security of society, the isolated human is forced to confront an unrelieved nihilism in his relationship to the wider world. The work throws down a gauntlet: are there limits to man’s capability to be a part of the world?
As an extension of the dialogue on the interrelation of part to whole, the artist is fundamentally concerned with the very notion of representation. Exploring the value of the art object, Sanchez Calvo seeks to investigate the relationships between different media and their ultimate interaction as part of a single work. As the relationship of human to humanity is explored visually, the relationship of medium to communication is explored conceptually, both aspects combining to produce works which challenge, evoke, intrigue and compel.
Text by Charlotte Hogg
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