Artist Carmen Calvo (Valencia, 1950), recipient of Spain’s National Award for Visual Arts in 2013 and the Julio González International Prize in 2020, takes part in a new Cañada Blanch Dialogue with Rafael Gil Salinas, Professor of Art History and curator. Led and moderated by art consultant Amparela Benlliure, the conversation offers a cross-disciplinary perspective on artistic practice, approaching creativity as a driving force for inquiry and intellectual reflection.
Throughout her career, Carmen Calvo has developed a distinctive visual language in which memory, identity, the body and the archive enter into dialogue through a practice encompassing painting, collage, photography, installation and found objects. Her work, exhibited in museums and galleries around the world, takes shape as an exercise in the recovery, transformation and reinterpretation of images and materials drawn from visual culture and everyday experience.
In this three-way conversation, we will explore Carmen Calvo’s creative process through her most recent works, examine the defining features of her artistic and conceptual practice, and revisit the milestones that have secured her international recognition and her essential place in the history of contemporary art.
About Carmen Calvo
An essential figure in contemporary art, Carmen Calvo’s works are held in major public and private collections in Spain and abroad, reflecting a career defined by conceptual coherence, formal experimentation and a sustained critical perspective.
She represented Spain at the 47th Venice Biennale in 1997 and has received numerous distinctions, including Spain’s National Award for Visual Arts in 2013 and the Julio González International Prize in 2020. Her work has been exhibited at institutions such as the IVAM – Institut Valencià d’Art Modern, the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, the MACBA – Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona and the Centre del Carme Cultura Contemporània, as well as at international museums and art centres including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Mie Prefectural Art Museum in Japan, the Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires and France’s Centre national des arts plastiques (CNAP).
Following a major solo exhibition at the Museu Picasso in Barcelona in 2023, her career was recognised in 2025 with the Juana Francés Award for Fine and Visual Arts. The award forms part of the Creative Arts Awards of the Valencian Public Universities (PRECREA), presented by the Miguel Hernández University of Elche.
About Rafael Gil Salinas
Professor of Art History at the Universitat de València, his research focuses on contemporary art, primarily through the methodologies of Cultural Studies and gender studies.
He has organised and participated in conferences and seminars such as Forgotten and Silenced: Women Artists in Contemporary Spain (Universitat d’Estiu de Gandia, Universitat de València, July 2021), as well as national and international conferences, including Women in the European Art Ecosystem (1800–1945) (University of Palermo, October 2023). His work in this field has also led him to curate nearly thirty exhibitions, notably Carmen Calvo. A Conversation, 1997 (Monastery of San Miguel de los Reyes, Valencia, 2021).
He has published more than twenty books, including the following recent titles:
- La escultura pública en Valencia (2000)
- El Museu del Tèxtil Valencià de Ontinyent (2015)
- Arte del siglo XIX (1760-1910) (2021)
- Joaquín Sorolla y su tiempo (2023).
He served as Dean of the Faculty of Geography and History at the Universitat de València from 1996 to 2002, Director of the Universitat d’Estiu de Gandia in 2002, and Vice-Rector for Culture at the Universitat de València from 2002 to 2010. He also directed the University’s Master’s Degree in Art History and Visual Culture from 2017 to 2023.
About Amparela Benlliure
Amparela Benlliure holds a degree in Art History and a PhD in Audiovisual Communication from the Universitat de València. She is a contemporary art consultant and cultural agent with extensive experience in developing projects related to galleries and art collecting, specialising in advising clients on the acquisition of works of art.
An essential reference on today’s artistic landscape, the works of Carmen Calvo are part of major national and international public and private collections, consolidating a career marked by conceptual consistency, formal experimentation, and a critical perspective sustained over time.
In the field of education, she has promoted initiatives focused on entrepreneurship and professional development within the art market, in collaboration with the Universitat de València, ADEIT and UVemprén. As a researcher, she has contributed articles on the Spanish gallery sector to De Gruyter’s Art Market Dictionary.
