About

Gema Alava (b. 1973 Madrid, Spain) lives and works in New York City. In 2012 she was appointed Cultural Adviser to the World Council of Peoples for the United Nations. Her work, in the form of installation, drawing, photography and art projects, deals with what she calls contradictory truths, and the capacity to create a maximum by reversing a minimum.

She has received a MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute, a MFA from the Academy of Art University, a BFA and MA from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and the Chelsea College of Art&Design, The London Institute.

In 1995 she was awarded a Penagos Prize - Spain's National Drawing Competition, Mapfre Foundation, being the youngest artist and first woman to achieve such recognition. She is recipient of La Caixa and Peter Reed Foundation Fellowships, and was nominated by the Smithsonian Institution for a 2010 SARF.

She has shown at the Guggenheim, Metropolitan, Queens Museum of Art and Bronx Art Museum in New York; and MANIFESTA

Areas of Expertise

Alava's art work has received national and international recognition in many publications including The New York Times, Artforum, Diario ABC, Diario El Pais, Fiber Arts Magazine, Agencia EFE, and has been broadcasted in HITM Television, NY1 Noticias, Mega TV News, NCI Noticias, RTVE, and TVE National Television of Spain.

Professional Affiliations

Alava teaches and lectures at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and the Morgan Library and Museum, in New York City.