Ana Gallardo

Ana Gallardo was born in Rosario, Argentina, in 1958 and currently lives in Mexico. She defines herself as a political artist, saying that ever since she first thought of herself as a creative person, she intended her practice to be one of resistance and transformation, with the belief that she could become a change-maker.

“I feel very grateful to have won this award. I always felt that it was very difficult. I deeply admire the work of my colleagues. It is very important, at this moment in my life, to be able to realize this work that contains a deep memory, anchored in my own history and which I share with other women. Thank you for your belief in this piece.”

Her work proposes a way of practicing art as a place of rebellion and transformation. She deals with different levels of violence and has recently focused on the violence involved in the process of growing old.

As part of her approach to her artistic work, she is said to ask herself the following questions which then help to form the basis of her pieces: “How do we live? In this world? With these emotions? With this body? At this age? How do you live? What is your history? What are your resources?” In search of answers, she establishes links with other people, carries out workshops and activities ranging from dancing to making a vegetable garden. These experiences shape a friendship between the artist and her companions, and lead to a process of work that gives rise to open pieces, defying time and linearity.

She currently coordinates Imán escuela, La Verdi CDMX and teaches at Soma, Mexico. Her work is currently being shown at Es Baluard, Museum of Modern & Contemporary Art in Palma De Mallorca. Numerous key galleries and museums such as MUAC, Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporaneo in Mexico City have featured Ana Gallardo’s work in the past, including the Ruth Benzacar Galería de Arte, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Ximena Garrido-Lecca

Ximena Garrido-Lecca, born in Lima, Peru, in 1980, lives and works between Mexico City and Lima. She studied at the art faculty of the Universidad Católica del Perú and completed a postgraduate course, followed by an MA at the Byam Shaw School of Art, London, in 2004. Her work employs a range of languages and symbolic materials that focus on highlighting the tensions between ancestral knowledge and colonial structures. She uses historical references, as well as observations of different objects, architectures and traditions that she records on her journeys around the Andes, where the knowledge of each locality has been adapting in the context of accelerated modernisation. Using an analytical approach to nature itself, she evaluates the different ways in which we relate to it, questioning the structures of knowledge, where patriarchal and colonial notions continue to be predominant.

The jury of the Julius Baer Art Prize considered the work of Ximena Garrido-Lecca to be outstanding.

Sol Calero

Sol Calero was born in Caracas, Venezuela, in 1982. She studied at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and Universidad de la Laguna in Tenerife. She lives and works in Berlin, where she runs a project space alongside Christopher Kline, called Kinderhook & Caracas after their respective home towns. Her work revolves around the notions of ancestry, culture, and the transformation of meaning that visual symbols can undergo in society. She was shortlisted for the Preis der Nationalgalerie and nominated for the Future Generation Art Prize in 2017. Her work has recently been shown in institutional shows at both the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Helsinki, and the Tate Liverpool.

Her works also form part of the following collections: Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris; CNAP – Centre National des Arts Plastiques, France; Musée Madre, Naples; Hiscox Collection, London; Fondazione Cassa Di Risparmio Di Cuneo, Italy.

Renata Lucas

Renata Lucas, born 1971, is a Brazilian artist. Her work focuses largely on temporary interactions within constructed environments that already exist, thus pushing the boundaries of architectural and urban space, and raising questions about how our everyday lives and social behaviour are affected by the spaces around us. As an artist, she breaks down the common and expected forms of everyday surfaces and structures, offering alternative perspectives and paths to those who encounter her work.

Her installations and spatial interventions radically and playfully subvert the routes and approaches that are set for us by architects, property owners and developers and others whose authority defines our movements and our sense of place. In each of her projects, Renata Lucas begins with a personal investigation of the chosen site.

Her work has been exhibited at the Tate Modern in London, at the 2006 São Paulo Art Biennial, at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, at the 2008 Biennale of Sydney and at the Venice Biennale in 2009. In 2009, she received the art award from the Ernst Schering Foundation in cooperation with the Kunst-Werke Institute for Contemporary Art. Her work is included in the collections of the Museu de Arte de Ribeirão Preto, the Museu de Arte Contemporânea do Paraná , the Museu de Arte Moderna Aloísio Magalhães, the Museum of Modern Art, Rio de Janeiro, the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art, the Zabludowicz Collection and the Fundación Botín.

Mónica Mayer

Mónica Mayer, born in Mexico in 1954, defines herself as a feminist artist. This stance has led her to question traditional definitions of art and to seek an integral approach in which, in addition to drawing, performance and social practice, writing, teaching, archiving and active participation in the community are fundamental elements of her production.

In 1983, she founded two of the first feminist art groups in Mexico: “Polvo de Gallina Negra” together with Maris Bustamante and “Tlacuilas y Retrateras” which emerged from a workshop she gave at the Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas (UNAM) with the participation of, among others, the historian Karen Cordero and the photographer Ana Victoria Jiménez. In 1989, together with Víctor Lerma, she launched the project Pinto mi Raya, whose aim is to lubricate the art system and which, among other things, brought together an important archive of contemporary art that includes more than 300,000 reviews and interviews published in the main national newspapers between 1991 and 2016.

Her work as a writer and lecturer has been abundant. She published a column on art in the newspaper El Universal for 20 years and has written several books. The most recent is “Intimidades... o no. Art, life and feminism…”