The Portfolio Review Series Online:
Through an array of mediums that go from painting, to sculpture, to installation, Bernadette Despujols (Barquisimeto, Venezuela, 1986) reflects on the cultural and political aspects of the body – especially those related to gender and age. Be it present, or referenced through other objects (chairs, sexual dolls, balls), the body becomes a scapegoat through which many of the aches and the taboos still present in our contemporary society are denounced.
Despujols has a Bachelor degree in Architecture from the Universidad Central de Venezuela (UCV) (Caracas, Venezuela, 2008), after which she took classes in Architecture, Cultural Exchange, Morphology and Anatomy at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris. She taught Architectonic Design at the School of Architecture at the Universidad Central de Venezuela before moving to the US to pursue her MFA in Visual Arts at the California Institute of the Arts (Cal Arts) (Los Angeles, California, 2012).
Among her awards and recognitions are: the DNA Residency (Provincetown, Massachussets 2020), NARS Foundation Residency 2018 (New York, NY, 2018); TRESLE Artist Residency (New York, NY,2018); MANA Contemporary Art Residency (Miami, FL, 2019); and a short term art residency at the Vermont Studio Center Art Center South Florida (Miami, FL,2012). She is currently an artist in residency at the Bakehouse Art Complex.
Website: http://bernadettedespujols.com/
Instagram: @bernadettedespujols
My current work revolves and questions historical allusions, myths and references regarding the perception of women, sex and contemporary life. – Bernadette Despujols