Saelia Aparicio

Saelia Aparicio (born 1982, Ávila, Spain) is a London-based multidisciplinary artist whose practice encompasses sculpture, installation, drawing, and other forms of spatial and figurative work. She completed a BA in Fine Arts at the University of Castilla-La Mancha in 2009 and an MA in Sculpture at the Royal College of Art in London in 2015. Her work explores the organic and establishes analogies between corporeal and social mechanisms, often approaching the body as a mutable and ambiguous space through which questions of transformation, identity, environment, and materiality can be considered. Aparicio frequently combines sculptural elements with large-scale mural drawings and modified found objects, constructing hybrid forms and environments that occupy a space between the familiar and the strange. Her works often employ a visual language informed by comics and animation, using humour and unexpected combinations of forms to address the physical and social conditions surrounding the body. The resulting installations invite viewers to move between recognisable objects and speculative forms, creating environments in which organic, synthetic, and figurative elements coexist. Her solo exhibitions include *Your Consequences Have Actions* at The Tetley, Leeds, in 2017; *Cadena Atrófica*, developed in collaboration with designer Attua Aparicio at Centro Puertas de Castilla in Murcia in 2018; *Prótesis para invertebrados* at La Casa Encendida in Madrid in 2019; and *Planta, Alzado, Raíz* at The Ryder in Madrid in 2019. *Prótesis para invertebrados* was one of the winning projects of Generación 2019, Fundación Montemadrid’s programme for emerging artists, and was subsequently presented at La Casa Encendida. The installation combined sculptural objects and wall drawings and engaged the viewer through an environment that activated multiple senses. Aparicio has also participated in exhibitions and programmes including Bloomberg New Contemporaries at The Bluecoat in Liverpool and the ICA in London, *A Mysterical Day* within the Serpentine Galleries public programme, and *The Shape of a Circle in the Mind of a Fish with Plants* at Serpentine Gallery. In 2019 she undertook a residency at The Bluecoat in Liverpool through the CreArt programme. Earlier residencies included the Sema Nanji Residency at the Seoul Museum of Art in 2016 and the New Contemporaries Studio Bursary at Sarabande: The Lee Alexander McQueen Foundation in London. In 2019, Aparicio was selected as a winner of Generaciones, receiving support for *Prótesis para invertebrados*. The programme, established by Fundación Montemadrid, supports emerging artists working across different forms of contemporary visual practice and presents the selected projects at La Casa Encendida. Her practice continues to move between sculpture, drawing, installation, and constructed environments, using hybrid and transformed forms to investigate the relationships between bodies, objects, and the wider systems in which they exist.