Selva Aparicio is an interdisciplinary artist working across installation and sculpture to create artwork that digs deeper into ideas of memory, intimacy and mourning. Born andraised in the woods just outside of Barcelona, Spain, she found solace in nature from a young age and cultivated a profound interest in the ephemeral as inspired by the natural world around her.
She received her BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2015 and her MFA in sculpture from Yale University in 2017. Aparicio’s work has been shown internationally in solo and group exhibitions including the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; The International Museum of Surgical Science, Chicago; Yale Center for British Art; Can Mario Museum, Spain; CRUSH Curatorial, New York; The Kyoto International Craft Center, Japan; Instituto Cervantes, New York; and the Centre de Cultura Contemporanea de Barcelona.
She was awarded the JUNCTURE Fellowship in Art and International Human Rights in 2016, the Blair Dickinson Memorial Prize in 2017, and received a MAKER Grant from theChicago Artist Coalition in 2020. She was also named one of the 2020 breakout artists in Chicago by NewCity Art and is a current artist in residence at BOLT.
Image: Selva Aparicia, Auto de Fe, (2021). Rose branch, play-wood, dandelions. Photo taken by Robert Chase Heishman.
Portrait photo credit: Eugene A. Maltez
BOLT Residency
Maker Grant