Belén Zahera (1985, Madrid, Spain) lives and works in Madrid, Spain. As an artist and researcher, her work explores the overlaps between biological processes in nature and symbolic constructions in language. She works with installation, sculpture, video and text, to investigate the space between performativity and the production of objects, balancing a monstrous and prosaic imagery. Through this her practice presents characters, different liminal states, and the mechanisms that activate the uncanny.
Zahera holds a degree in Fine Arts from the Complutense University of Madrid, an MA in Fine Art from Slade School of Fine Arts (University College London), and has studied theatre directing in Madrid. Currently, she is a PhD candidate in Fine Arts at Complutense University of Madrid. Recent solo shows include: Margins of Ten: Belén Zahera – A Good Day for Palmistry, Nogueras Blanchard (Barcelona, 2018-2019); Ob skené, Care/of (Milan, 2017); and (play)ground-less: hollow tongues, Gasworks (London, 2017), among others. Recent group shows include: Querer, Parecer, Noche, CA2M (Madrid, 2018-2019); Unspoken We, W139 (Amsterdam, 2018); Itinerarios XXII: Rendering the Real, Fundación Botín (Santander, 2015); and Generación 2014, La Casa Encendida (Madrid, 2014), among others. She has been part of the Zahera/Cuenca collective, co-founder of Salon Flux (London), and member of Proyecto Rampa (Madrid) and (play) ground-less. She has previously received the Generaciones award from the Montemadrid Foundation (2013), the Visual Arts Scholarship from the Botín Foundation (2014) and has been an artist in residence at E.M.M.A (2017).