Alejandro Zaia Born in 1961 in Buenos Aires, Alejandro Zaia received his Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the Universidad Católica Argentina, where he was also a Professor. He has worked in the area of Communications, Public Affairs and Law both in the private sector and the political arena.

Based in Miami, Florida, Zaia headed the ZCM Group and Conexión PR, both specializing in public relations, communications and media. ZCM Group is geared to the Latin American market while Conexión PR focuses on the Hispanic market in the United States.
Areas of professional strength include consumer marketing, automotive sector, telecommunications/IT, energy and pharmaceutical. His clients include American Express, Visa, Scotiabank, Daimler Chrysler, Hyundai, Adidas, Kraft Foods, Merisant, Lilly, AstraZeneca, Petrobras, Star Alliance, Hitachi Data System, Lucent Technologies, UPS, Zurich and others.

Among his academic and political activities, he has held leadership positions as Vice President of the Unión de Jóvenes Democráticos Hispanoamericanos (Union of Young Hispanic Democrats) at two newspapers. Additionally, he is a founding member and former Vice President of the IYDU (International Youth Democratic Union).

In 1987, he was named an Honored Guest of the City of Guatemala in 1987.
Alejandro Zaia also sits on the boards of various non-profit organizations, including A GANAR, a programme of PARTNERS OF AMERICAS. He is also part of the Advisory Board of MOLA, the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach, California.
In the public arena, Zaia has worked as a counselor to the various governmental agencies including the Senate in Argentina. Between 1994 and 1996, he represented The Economist Conferences in Argentina, and was one of the organizers of The Argentina Roundtable, held in 1995.

Since 1997, Zaia has led ZCM, now known as IDENTIApr, which has become one of the leading public relations firms in Argentina. Poder, the prominent Latin American business magazine, named him one of the top 10 Image Makers in Latin America in 2001.

In 2007 he founded PINTA, the Latin American Art Show, with the aim to promote Latin American Art in New York presenting a unique platform for artists, galleries, dealers, curators, museums and the general public.  In 2010 he founded PINTA London thus extending the reach for Latin American, Spanish and Portuguese art in Europe. He is Director of both PINTA NY (2007 – 2012) and PINTA London (2010 – present).

Alejandro Zaia is also Founder and Director of MUNDUS NOVUS, a Latin American contemporary collection of art from Latin America, Spain and Portugal.

Adrian Locke joined the Royal Academy of Arts in 2001 having completed a PhD at the University of Essex. Over the past twelve years Adrian has overseen a wide variety of exhibitions in both the Main Galleries and the Sackler Wing of Galleries working alongside a number of guest curators. The exhibitions he has delivered include Turks: A Journey of a Thousand Years, 600-1600 AD (2005), Munch by Himself (2005), Chola: Sacred Bronzes of Southern India (2007), Kuniyoshi (2009), Anish Kapoor (2009) and Modern British Sculpture (2011). He was co-curator of the award winning Aztecs (2002). Adrian also worked very closely with the Philadelphia Museum of Art on Tesoros/Treasures/Tesouros: The Arts in Latin America, 1492–1820 (2006).   
He was the curator of Mexico: A Revolution in Art, 1910-1940, for which he has wrote the accompanying catalogue, that opened in July. He is currently co-curating Radical Geometry: Modern Art of South America from the Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Collection.

George Blacklock is a painter, musician and Dean of College.  He has shown extensively in Europe and in North America and has been represented by Flowers Galleries - http://www.flowersgalleries.com -   since 1996. He has received various awards from the Arts Council, the Greater London Arts Association and was a prize-winner at the John Moores contemporary painting competition. He has work in many collections including the Arts Council of Great Britain.  

He is a musician within a band called Country Dirt (latest CD release, ‘Rodeo Free Europe’ - can be found on iTunes and Amazon).

His not inconsiderable day job is as Dean of College at Chelsea College of Art. Chelsea is one of six colleges that make up the University of the Arts London and the Chelsea campus is on Millbank, right next to Tate Britain.

Marina Kurikhina is a Russian contemporary art advisor and curator, currently residing in London. Much of the last five years has seen her in Latin America, developing close ties with the artistic community there and working to assist in its representation abroad.

A solid academic background supports her characteristic ‘hands on’ approach that has helped her to establish a network of professional relationships, and to consolidate an enviable and comprehensive catalogue of contemporary artists. She has assisted a number of organizations in establishing or improving their links with México, and created the founding artistic vision for Fundacion Magnolia, a non-profit organisation of which she served as director.

Having been an associate director at Max Wigram Gallery in London, Marina has signed prominent Brazilian artist Valeska Soares, whose practice she continues to promote in Europe.

Currently, Marina is working on a number of international independent initiatives, including institutional and public projects.

Urban myths of the near future

M A R U   R O J A S  Mexico

Maru Rojas is an artist, writer and art facilitator from Mexico currently based in London. She has a MFA Art Writing from Goldsmiths College (for which she was sponsored by FONCA, Mexico & the Jumex Collection). Her practice explores, through drawing, writing and live art, our articulation of everyday life and how we relate to others through the stories we tell, and how we interpret the world through our relationship with them.

 

In 2013 she was UNESCO/Aschberg Artist in Residence at the Bundanon Trust in Australia. She has exhibited her work in the UK, the US, Denmark and Mexico and her writing has been published in A-N magazine, Art in Print (US), This is Tomorrow, and other independent publications in the UK.

{gallery}CAMARADAS2014/MARUROJAS{/gallery}

 

G E O R G E   M A J O R United Kingdom

George Major (b. London 1982) uses written text, recorded voice, video and performance to tell stories. He has held residencies and made appearances at the ICA, Whitechapel Gallery and Chisenhale Gallery. Between 2008 and 2012, George was co-founding director of the itinerant gallery Squid & Tabernacle where he curated a programme of exhibitions, screenings and artist-led events throughout the UK and Europe. George is also the editor of the Geographies of the Artist's Studio book series.

{gallery}CAMARADAS2014/GEORGEMAJOR{/gallery}

Verisimilitude I

P I L  A R  C O R T E S   Mexico

Originating from Mexico City, Pilar Cortes graduated with BA in Visual Arts at the National School of Arts (ENAP), part of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). Based in Bristol, UK since 2008, she works at her studio at Hamilton House, Stokes Croft. Through the elements, her work explores the philosophical theme of the sublime.

“For me, painting a landscape isn’t about depicting a particular place, but painting somewhere without boundaries or national identity. Eliminating the notion of painting as a window is very important to me. I like to consider a painting as an object that creates an environment and a conversation. I aim to create places that belong to every spectator and take them to a common place: Nowhere.”  Pilar’s work has been exhibited widely throughout more than 30 exhibitions in Mexico, Colombia, the UK and Spain. In September 2011, she was invited to participate in the performance “From Morning till night” by Katerina Seda at the Tate Modern, London. A selection of Pilar’s work is available from: http://www.pilarcortes.co.uk/

{gallery}CAMARADAS2014/PILARCORTES{/gallery}

M A R C U S   D Y E R   United Kingdom

Marcus is a Bristol-based multi-disciplinary digital artist, currently specialising in sound art and virtual reality. Most recently, he has been using his programming skills in conjunction with a smartphone based VR-kit, to experiment with virtual and augmented reality-based technologies. Originally a musician and sound technician, Marcus was a former Sound Technology student at Paul McCartney’s world-renowned Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts. Since then, Marcus has enjoyed an eclectic career, having worked with cult bands and musicians including Matt Elliott (aka Third Eye Foundation, Domino Records / Ici D’Ailleurs), Manyfingers (Ici D’Ailleurs) and Soe’za (upcoming release, Gringo Records).  In recent years, he has worked on several sound art pieces including contributions to group exhibitions (‘The Eclectic Selves’ Parlour Showrooms, Bristol, 2013 & ‘Hope and Poverty’ exhibition, Paintworks, Bristol, 2012) and collaborations with visual artists Pilar Cortes and Helena Hernandez  (Limitrofe: Crossing Borders, El Arbor Gallery, Valencia, Spain, 2011). In 2013, he was awarded a Fascinate Digital Arts grant from Falmouth University to develop a generative/procedural music application and take part in the 2013 Fascinate Conference &  Showcase.Marcus is interested in how visual and aural senses can interact to create a sense of space and be used to invoke an emotional response. His work also explores authenticity and how we value creative works - why some tools become almost disparagingly classed as ‘technology’ while others are elevated as ‘instruments’ - challenging what he sees as a false dichotomy between art and technology.

A selection of Marcus’ work is available from www.theskyisthinaspaperhere.co.uk.

{gallery}CAMARADAS2014/MARCUSDYER{/gallery}

In Progress

R O G E L I O   L E A L    Mexico

From early childhood, Rogelio Leal Benavides became interested in visual and performing arts. He has travelled different regions of the world and documented his journeys through written notes and photographs. Currently, Rogelio resides in London and is pursuing a doctorate degree at King’s College. He spends most of his time reading or writing and has a profound interest in the arts. Before settling in London, Rogelio lived and studied in China, France, and United States and has been influenced by a number of writers, poets, and painters worldwide.

{gallery}CAMARADAS2014/ROGELIOLEAL{/gallery}

A N D R E W   B L A C K W E L L   United Kingdom

Andrew Backwell grew up in Winchester, where he spent his youth flying airplanes and developing aerial photographs in his darkroom. In his late teenage years, alongside studying for a business degree in Oxford, he became seriously involved with photography. His main interests include urban ruins, portraits and travel photography. Andrew has become increasingly interested in learning about global art and the use of art in promoting cultural collaboration. He believes that diversity can make a great contribution to our awareness about the world, help us become more accepting about each other’s habits and traditions, and enrich our lives.

{gallery}CAMARADAS2014/ANDREWBLACKWELL{/gallery}

My London, Your London

A N I T A   D I N A M I T A    Mexico

Graphic designer & illustrator

Under the alias AnitaDinamita, Ana Rojas illustrates quirky characters with peculiar obsessions and buildings of the cities she has lived in. Barcelona, Madrid and now London, where she currently works as a Freelance Art Director and illustrator. Her illustration style is simple and at times naive, but it never lacks humour and a lot of care.  Ana has a degree in Product Design from the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City, and has a specialisation in children’s illustration from Escola Joso in Barcelona.  Although she has lived abroad for the past five years, she still collaborates in illustration projects in Mexico and is currently illustrating a book for children.

What she misses most about Mexico aside from family and friends is spending holidays at the beach and Oaxaca cheese.

 

To see more of her work go to www.anita-dinamita.com.

{gallery}CAMARADAS2014/ANITADINAMITA{/gallery}

E S T E L L E   M O R R I S   United Kingdom

Designer & illustrator

 

Maintaining a unique visual style, Estelle specialises in creating delicate observations coupled with a distinctive colour palette and composition. Primarily she enjoys drawing people, intricate details and typography; working with pencil, Indian ink, collage and digital editing. Her work is identifiable by a clean, minimal style and often ambiguous or quirky subject matter. She thrives on a varied workload and enjoys combining different methods and materials for her illustrations. She creates work for a range of clients as a freelance illustrator and designer, such as book cover designs, magazine editorials and fashion illustrations. Since relocating to London six months ago, she has worked on a variety of both commercial and personal projects and hopes to continue to explore the city, gaining inspiration for her illustration. She enjoys visiting museums and galleries and takes a sketchbook everywhere to capture people and conversations.

{gallery}CAMARADAS2014/ESTELLEMORRIS{/gallery}

Overdue Synchronicity

J u l i u s   H e i n e m a n n   Germany

(b.1984, Munich, Germany) studied Photography at Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen (2005-7) and at HGB Leipzig (2008-11), graduating in 2011 with distinction. In 2011 he received the DAAD-Postgraduate Scholarship for Great Britain, which allowed him to study at the Royal College of Art in London completing an MA in Sculpture in 2013.

Julius Heinemann works with traces, marks and the decisive placement of line and colour on a variety of surfaces – paper, boards, objects, walls – at the intersection between real and imagined space. Human scale and its relation to the architecture of the exhibition space play resolute roles. The ‘genius loci’ and the perception of space and time are main topics in his practice.

 

Heinemann participated in group exhibitions in Europe, Venezuela and Egypt. Recent solo exhibitions include: Nusser & Baumgart (Munich, Germany) and Hilary Crisp (London, UK). He is living between London and Munich and recently had a solo presentation at Zona Maco in México.

 

{gallery}CAMARADAS2014/JuliusHeinemann{/gallery}

R i c h a r d  H a r d s    United Kingdom

He studied an MA in Sculpture at the Royal College of Art, and BA at Goldsmiths University (graduated with honors). Exhibitions include: Work in Progress Show, Royal College of Art, London; Palace of Wisdom, E.R.O.S Journal; Middle Land, Departure Foundation, Birmingham; M.: M.: M.:, Apiary Projects, London (in collaboration with Tamsin Snow); The Woodmill Studio Artists Group Show, London; The Accidents of Form, lobe Gallery, Berlin; MO-VE-MENT ** by Five Storey Projects, Projects JT 10 James Taylor Gallery, London; among others. Residencies include: Frans Masereel Centrum, and lobe Kasterlee Gallery, Berlin. It is also dedicated to teaching, and teacher degree in Sculpture at Camberwell College of Arts, London and taught at Art for Chelsea College of Art & Design, Graphic Design at South Thames College and Foundation Diploma in Art and design at Havering Sixth Form

{gallery}CAMARADAS2014/RichardHards{/gallery}

P A U L A   L O P E Z    Z A M B R A N O   Mexico

Art historian, writer and curator. She studied a BA in Art History at the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City and MA in Curating Contemporary Art at the Royal College of Art in London. She has curated several independent projects including Unfolding Memories (presented in a private house in Kings Road, London); Rushgrove House, Woolwich, London, (co-curated with Byzantia Harlow); Correspondence, presented in diverse places in Mexico City, Oaxaca and Portugal (co-curated with Lourenço Egreja); Tracing the Tacit, Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridge, (as part of the Interim Projects of the Royal College of Art); and Overdue Synchronicity, shown simultaneously in La Tallera, Cuernavaca, México and the Royal College of Art, London (co-curated with Violeta Horcasitas). She worked as Exhibitions Coordinator at the Contemporary Art Museum of Oaxaca, Mexico; Coordinator of the Luis Adelantado Gallery in Mexico City, Mexico; and Assistant to the Curator in Carpe Diem Arte & Pesquisa, Lisbon, Portugal. She has also participated in several international art fairs and was selected as Jury for the Stimulation Program for Creativity and Artistic Development in Oaxaca (PECDA), Mexico. In addition, she has worked in places such as the National Museum of History in Mexico City assisting on the Educational Department; and Curare, Critical Space for the Arts, researching and developing a data centre. She writes for different magazines and newspapers including Excelsior and Codigo. She currently lives and works in London.

V I O L E T A    S O L I S    Mexico

BA in Communication Sciences and Master on Philosophy. She worked as a curator at The Tallera (Cuernavaca, Mexico), museum of the Project Siqueiros from the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes. Previously she was curator of the private collection Adrastus Collection. From 2007 to 2012 she worked at Fundación / Colección Jumex in the area of ​​Research and Curatorial Programs, working on more than fifteen national and international exhibitions. She was Coordinator of Communications and Broadcasting in Casa Vecina, Sponsorship Coordinatior at the International Contemporary Film Festival of Mexico City (FICCO), Coordinator of Public Relations and Press of the Festival Expression en Corto. As an independent curator she has developed: A Room For Two And For Many More in Centro Cultural Border, Invisible Maps for Luis Adelantado Gallery, the editions of the Speed ​​Show and Bring Your Own Beamer in Mexico. Her work has as main research interest on the relationshop of art and collaborative processes, the exploration of new exhibition formats and their implications in contemporary art. On La Tallera she developed Simultaneous, exploring new formats of displaying art by using video and the internet as a basis; these were conceived as platforms to gather and disseminate artworks, creators, viewers, artistic expressions and spaces around the world. Until its seventh edition held in March this year, the project has linked with about 30 artists and 40 spaces around the world.

A N N A   B R U C E     United Kingdom

I have been working as a photojournalist since completing a Masters in Fine Art in 2012. I travel whenever I can, and find direction and fulfillment in composing images and photo-stories that reveal details about the people I have met and the places I have visited.

 

{gallery}CAMARADAS2014/ANNABRUCE{/gallery}

TEA-QUILA

“Tequila” is a traditional drink in Mexico, made from the Agave plant. And English breakfast is a classical tradition in United Kingdom. Those two drinks have been in our cultures from ages.  For that reason we used Tequila and English Breakfast Tea as an inspiration to take portraits of 15 (Mexican and British) people “Drinking our Culture”.  We decided this number of portraits, according with the campaign: “2015: The Year of Mexico in the UK and the UK in Mexico”.  Tea-quila project wants to express this friendly relationship between Mexican and British people.

W E N D Y    G A R C E S   Mexico

I believe that there are incredible places to explore with wonderful people waiting to be discovered on every corner around the world.  One of my main goals is to be able to capture all those experiences and peoples emotions through the lens of my camera. All these interesting situations could happen on any street or location where the nature and people become the main characters of my photography’s composition.

{gallery}CAMARADAS2014/WendyGarces{/gallery}

L I A N N E   M I L W A R D      United Kingdom

Lianne Milward is a London-based British artist. Her work is an investigation into the space where figurative painting becomes sensation: exploring the boundaries of representing the physicality of the body, through paint. Using her passion for the figure and philosophical standpoints from Cezanne, Merleau-Ponty’s ‘Phenomenology of Perception’ and Deleuze’ concept ‘Painting Sensation’; Lianne aims to bypass the brain and create work that can be felt rather then interpreted as visual code. 

 

In addition to completing a Bachelors of Fine Art at Central Saint Martins School of Art and Design, she held a six-month artist residency at St George’s Hospital ( in Tooting Broadway) during her degree.

 

Milwards’ work is currently held in both public and private collections, including St George’s Hospital and Sharpham House. Previously her work has been exhibited by Clyde and Co and the globally exhibiting The Sketchbook Project 2011/Brooklyn Art Library.

 

Since graduating travelled India alone armed with a analogue camera and sketchbooks, taken on commissions and recently began a collaboration with a film maker in Devon. Having moved back to London a few months ago, she is now filling up more sketchbooks with drawings of commuters and continuing with her long-term personal project: The Back Series.

{gallery}CAMARADAS2014/MILWARD{/gallery}

P A B L O   A N T O L I   Mexico

Pablo Antolí is a London-based Mexican photographer and filmmaker interested in the creative tensions between the documentary and constructed image. Working across different formats, his work explores the themes of history, memory, and identity. 

 

He obtained a Master of Arts degree with distinction in Photography from LCC and since then he has been working on personal and commissioned projects in Europe and Mexico. Alongside to his image-maker practice, Pablo Antolí has also lectured and delivered workshops on photography and moving image. His Bachelors Degree dissertation, The Multimedia Photographic Documentary: An Investigation into How the Application of Semiotics and Design for New Media Can Repurpose a Photographic Documentary, has been published by Verlag Dr. Müller and he is contributor and photography editor at Los Hijos de la Malinche. 

 

His project In the Memory of Images documents the life and decay of images, their transformation and their physical qualities but it also refers to memory and our personal mnemonic investments in pictures. By carefully recording the physical qualities of the images, the plastic specificities of the reproductions are revealed. The photographs are registers of the passage of time in the images’ lifecycle, the space they inhabit, and their material transience. The documents of this ephemeral stage are rearranged to create a construction that interacts with the viewer’s own memory. 

 

His recent project Glacialis registers the last stage in the lives of fragments of the Breiðamerkurjökull glacier before drifting into the North Atlantic. The icebergs stand briefly on a black volcanic beach like sculptures; then taken away by the waves. The icebergs operate as symbols of the transient nature of memory whilst the photographs intention is to capture the interstitial existence between being diluted in the sea and their origin in the glacier ice cap. Pablo Antolí is currently working on a long term projects like Urban Guadalupe. This series is based on the construction of an archive that documents the diverse representations of Our Lady of Guadalupe shrines that exist in Mexico City.

{gallery}CAMARADAS2014/ANTOLI{/gallery}