Emilia Azcárate’s (b. 1964, Caracas) painting practice explores innovative, continually evolving approaches to mark-making and form. Her earlier works incorporate unconventional materials such as smoke stains and cow dung to build compositions, while recent paintings involve carefully slicing shapes from stretched canvases with a scalpel, allowing the cut sections to hang freely. These pieces blur the boundaries between painting and sculptural relief. In other series, Azcárate slices open notebooks and bottle caps — exposing their inner layers. She describes this meticulous technique, saying: “The precision of the blade equals that of a paintbrush, yet it frees the shape, transforming it and ultimately giving rise to sculpture.”
Having graduated from Central Saint Martins School of Art in London during the 1980s, Azcárate has been actively exhibiting since the early ‘90s. Her practice has expanded through workshops and residencies in Venezuela and Trinidad, and for over a decade, she has lived and worked in Madrid.
Azcárate has held solo exhibitions at prominent venues including Henrique Faria Fine Art (New York), Galería Farías Fábregas (Caracas), Periférico Caracas, Casa de América (Madrid), Caribbean Contemporary Arts 7 (Trinidad), Museo Alejandro Otero, and Sala Mendoza (Caracas). She has also participated in significant group exhibitions, fairs, and biennials, notably at the Museo de Arte Moderno de Ecuador, São Paulo Biennial, Prague Biennale, Havana Biennial, Museo de Arte Moderno Jesús Soto, ARCO, Untitled, and Frieze.
Her work forms part of esteemed museums and collections such as Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Cisneros-Fontanals Collection (CIFO), Museo Alejandro Otero, Berezdivin Collection (Puerto Rico), Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Caracas, Colección Banco España (Madrid), and Fundación Coca-Cola (Spain).
Emilia is represented by Henrique Faria Fine Art.