Bloc Billboard: Tania Blanco
01 November – 23 February
Free & open to all
We are delighted to present the work of artist Tania Blanco as part of our Bloc Billboard programme. Tania is the third artist to present work as part of the 2019 programme and her work will be installed on our new billboard located alongside the gallery on Eyre Lane.
Blanco´s art practice examines the current historical global context, delving into different specific socio-economical and ideological terms through painting and object making. The dismantling of the complex mechanism that feeds and sustains today’s corporate-led globalisation has become an intrinsic objective throughout her research. Through her work she aims to provide an alternative regard to pre-established thinking closely exploring issues such as: the global economic system, the food, medical and military industries, media and social control, recent social upheavals, environmental exhaustion, etc. These issues branch out into projects that reflect some of the detected dysfunctions of the power structures of our societies, taking distance from official perspectives and biased historical sources.
The artist has employed the design aesthetic of governmental billboard campaigns, aiming to subvert the notion of the referendum, which has plagued the psyche of British politics over the past 4 years. For the billboard Blanco applies it to an alternative subject matter; asking the question of whether we should vote to abolish the British monarchy.
Blanco has also produced a website to run alongside the billboard.
Tania Blanco is currently participating in the Postgraduate Program (2017-2020) of the Royal Academy of Arts in London. She graduated from the San Carlos Fine Arts Faculty (Polytechnic University of Valencia) in 2001, completing part of her studies at Middlesex University in London. Blanco ́s work has a multifaceted character whereby several vectors converge, often focusing on recent socio-political events and environmental worries. She has participated in residencies and received grants and awards such as the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, Casa de Velázquez Residency Grant (Académie de France à Madrid), Fundación Especial Caja Madrid Grant (Generaciones 2014), Bogliasco Foundation Residency Grant (Liguria Arts Center), Caixa Galicia Foundation Artist Grant or Formarte Spanish Ministry of Culture Residency Grant (Collège d'Espagne à Paris), among others. Blanco ́s work has also been shown in solo exhibitions at museums and galleries such as the Sala Parpalló (Valencia, SP), Bilbaoarte Foundation (Bilbao, SP), Alarcón Criado Gallery (Sevilla, SP) or Josedelafuente Gallery (Santander, Spain). She has also participated in group exhibitions, including the Centquatre (Paris, FR), Beall Center for Art +Technology (Irvine, California, USA), Assembly Point (London, UK), or La Casa Encendida (Madrid, SP).