Photograph by C.Leeuwenburg
Delia Cancela
Delia Cancela was born in Buenos Aires where she studied at the Fine Arts School. She currently lives between Buenos Aires and Paris.
She was part of the Argentine avantgarde Instituto Di Tella (ITDT) in the 1960s, where she took part in the seminal Experiencias Visuales 67 and Experiencias 68 exhibitions and held the fashion show Ropa con Riesgo.
In 1967 she travelled to Paris with a grant from the French government. In the late 1960s she moved to New York and in 1970 settled in London with her partner Pablo Mesejean working as the collaborative duo Pablo and Delia. In London their work received immediate recognition and was published in Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar and other publications. In 1975 they both moved to Paris where they presented their collections at events combining fashion and performance.
In 2018 the Museum of Modern Art, Buenos Aires held the retrospective exhibition Reina de Corazones / Queen of Hearts 1962-2018. She was part of Crear Mundos, alongside international women artists at Proa Foundation, Buenos Aires (2020-2021); Radical Women at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles and the Brooklyn Museum, New York (2017-2018); International Pop at Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Dallas Museum of Arts (2016) and Museum of Arts, Philadelphia (2017); and The World Goes Pop at Tate Modern (2015).
Mujer - verde y peonia/ Woman-green and peony from the series Mujeres y naturaleza / Women and Nature, 2021. Mixed media on paper
Mujer - torso árbol /
Woman - tree torso from the series Mujeres y naturaleza / Women and Nature, 2021. Mixed media on paper
Display of Mujeres y naturaleza / Women and Nature, 2021. Mixed media on paper. Exhibition ‘Golden Daughters of the Sun’, London, October 2021 (detail).
Naturaleza y mujer con vestido azul/Nature and woman in blue dress, pigment ink on textile
Mujer con vestido amarillo y zapatos blancos/ Woman with a yellow dress and white shoes, 2015, pigment ink on textile
Mujer-carbón/ Woman-coal, from the series Mujeres y naturaleza / Women and Nature, 2021. Mixed media on paper
Mujer-tierra / Woman-Earth from the series Mujeres y naturaleza / Women and Nature, 2019. Pigment ink and watercolour pencils on paper
Tribute to Women Artists (apron), 2018
Image by Pablo Mehanna for Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires
Alone in my studio, five meters of fabric begin to grow. It’s crossed diagonally by a ruffle. Forty meters of ribbons are braided to become a twenty meters path and thirty meters of tulle await to be part of it. In the process of cutting and sewing, my textile transforms into an apron, a romantic, working kind, endless apron which becomes the home of women artists, thinkers, activists: my favourites. An exhaustive research makes me discover and anxious to include more and more. I rejoice in a state of pleasure and remember Emma Goldman’s words: “If I can’t dance, it’s not my revolution” My feet begin to tap the wooden floor. This will forever be a work in progress... .
Mujer y lava/ Woman and lava, from the series Mujeres y naturaleza / Women and Nature, 2019. Pigment ink and watercolour pencils on paper
Falbalas, 2017, soft sculpture
Image by Pablo Mehanna for Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires
Mujer planta / Women Plant, from the series Mujeres y naturaleza / Women and Nature, 2020, pigment ink and watercolour pencil on paper
Ophelia skirt, 2014, pigment ink and embroidery on textile
Image by Pablo Mehanna for Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires
Reina de Corazones / Queen of Hearts retrospective, 2018
Image by Pablo Mehanna for Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires
Camino/Path from the series Mujeres y naturaleza / Women and Nature, 2020, pigment ink and watercolour pencil on paper
For more details on Delia Cancela and
her works please get in touch:
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Joyce Campbell
Shannon Te Ao
Peter Robinson
Arapeta Ashton
Ayrson Heraclito
Dalila Dalleas
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