Lot 150 - Alexandra Diez de Rivera - Confessional II (Closed)

ARTIST INFO

About 

Alexandra Diez de Rivera is a Spanish-Argentine visual artist based in London working with photography. Her work is characterised by images of psychologically ambiguous objects and spaces that are empty but charged and marked by the passage of people and time. She is interested in psychology, memory, trace and the body. Diez de Rivera’s work has been featured in publications such as Vanity Fair, FT Magazine, Vogue, and Le Point and exhibited in galleries both nationally and internationally. She is represented in collections in Europe, China, the US and UAE. Diez de Rivera’s work was selected for the 2022-2023 edition of 'Small is Beautiful’ at Flowers Gallery, RWA Bristol’s ‘Photo Open 2023’ exhibition, 'London Grads Now 21' at the Saatchi Gallery and 'After the High Tide' at Cromwell Place in London, amongst other exhibitions. Diez de Rivera holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Communications from Central Saint Martins University of the Arts London and a Master’s degree in Photography from the Royal College of Art. 

Education 

2018 - 2021 Royal College of Art, London. MA Fine Art Photography 
2003 - 2005 Central Saint Martins University of the Arts London. Post Graduate degree Communication and Graphic Design 

Select Exhibitions/Awards 

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS 
2023 RWA Photo Open Exhibition 2023. Royal West of England Academy, Bristol 
2022 Small is Beautiful. Flowers Gallery, London 
2022 The Winter Gala for Save the Children exhibition, Guildhall London 
2022 PHotoESPANA Discoveries Portfolio Exhibition, Madrid 
2022 LONDON GRADS NOW 21. Saatchi Gallery, London 
2022 Travers Smith CSR Art Programme Exhibition, Travers Smith HQ London 
2021 December Exhibiton. NOUA Gallery, Bodo Norway 
2021 Fair Art Fair Curated I. Unit 1 Gallery, London 
2021 After the High Tide, RCA Degree Show. Cromwell Place, London 
2021 Selected 2021 Art Graduates. Dyson Gallery, Royal Collge of Art, London 
2021 Can We Dance Again? Royal Victoria Patriotic Building, London 
2021 Final, Not Over. Unit 1 Gallery, London 
2021 Always Present. Void Collective (online) 
2020 A Pervading Absence. Windows 187, Greenwich Studios, London 
2019 Offprint. Tate Modern, London 
2019 Royal College of Art WIP Show. Dyson Building, RCA, London 
 
AWARDS 
2023 Nominee in Fine Art Photography Awards (Open theme) 
2021-2022 Selected for the Travers Smith CSR Art Programme 
2021 Selected for The Pupil Sphere Showcase 
2021 FAPA Awards - Nominee in Fine Art Photography 
2020 Critical Mass Competition - Finalist 
2020 Fine Art Photography Awards - Nominee in Conceptual Photography 
2019 Fine Art Photography Awards - Nominee in Portrait Photography 
2019 UAL Chinese Scholar Association - Winner 
2019 Fine Art Photography Awards - Nominee in Portrait Photography 

Statement about AOAP Submitted Artwork 

‘A house that has been experienced is not an inert box. Inhabited space transcends geometrical space’  Gaston Bachelard, The Poetics of Space 

 
My practice looks at the vacant space, the hollow shell, the skin of things. I am drawn to psychologically ambiguous objects and spaces that are empty but charged and marked by the passage of people and time. I work with large format film, cameraless photography, and other creative techniques to seize the heart of my subjects, to capture their presence and aura. I'm interested in psychology, memory, and the body. My subjects have an intimate, physical relationship to the body and have been handled and inhabited, they are inanimate but loaded, exposing the affecting remnants of past lives. Resonating Spaces depicts a series of singular locations which have been inhabited but are vacant in the photograph, allowing the viewer in. Confessionals I and II are included in this series. The camera becomes an instrument for resurrecting archaic and obsolete objects, turning them into something new, allowing us to observe them and re-evaluate their cultural, political and sentimental meaning. I want my stark and silent photographs to act as introspective spaces, mirrors for self-examination which trigger our deeper thoughts and feelings, fears and desires. My work deals with absence. When something is missing, we unwittingly fill in the gaps, occupying the space with our own lived experience and imagination, drawing from memories and emotions which may be hidden or suppressed. The space becomes a reflection of ourselves, a chance to examine our own mind, identity, and feelings. 

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