Angela de la Cruz

Angela de la Cruz, born 1965 in La Coruña, Spain, in her work uses painting and its components as a sculptural object rather than a two-dimensional representation. She focuses on breaking preconceived ideas of painting by targeting the essential structural component of the canvas: the stretcher. By breaking and bending out of shape the stretcher, the canvases are often left detached, mangled, torn, or warped. Recently, de la Cruz’ creations take on anthropomorphic characteristics in the actions they seem to be performing or the poses in which they are set.

Angela de la Cruz studied philosophy at the University of Santiago de Compostela (1989) before moving to London, where she obtained a BA in Fine Art from Goldsmiths College (1994) and an MA in Sculpture and Critical Theory from the Slade (1996). Important solo exhibitions include Museo Cabañas, Guadalajara (2021), CGAG, Santiago de Compostela, (2019), Azkuna Zentroa, Bilbao (2018/19), Fundación Luis Seoane (2015), Camden Arts Centre, London (2010), Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo, Sevilla (2005), and Museo de Arte Contemporanea de Vigo (2004). Recent group exhibitions include Palais Populaire, Berlin (2022), Bilbao Fine Arts Museum (2021),  Bombas Gens, Valencia (2021), Kunstsaele Berlin (2020), Freelands Foundation, London (2019), Wetterling Gallery, Stockholm (2018), Moran Moran, Los Angeles (2018), Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (2018), Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA) (2017). De la Cruz was nominated for the David and Yuko Juda Art Foundation Grant in 2022 and for the Turner Prize in 2010. In the same year, she was awarded the Paul Hamlyn Award, London. In 2017, she was awarded the Premio Nacional de Artes Plásticas. In 2011, she was awarded the Premio da Critica Galicia and Art Critics Awards at ARCOmadrid. Angela de la Cruz lives and works in London.