Works
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Mujeres que cargan animales cuando todo arde I, 2026 -
Mujeres que cargan animales cuando todo arde II, 2026
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Mujeres que cargan animales cuando todo arde III, 2026
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Please Hope, 2026
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Si me intentan atrapar, 2026
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Lágrimas invertidas e hibiscus, 2026
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Algo me pincha, 2026
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Y sentirlo todo, 2025
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Al no encontrarlo decidió crearlo y quedarse a vivir allí, 2024
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Heading out the highway, 2024
Biography
Gema Polanco is a visual artist whose practice primarily encompasses installation, textiles, drawing and photography. Her work explores questions surrounding identity, desire, care and forms of personal transformation, developing a distinctive visual language through the combination of materials, symbols and references drawn from popular culture.
Polanco works with aesthetics associated with punk, rock and underground culture, bringing them into dialogue with domestic, mystical and popular elements. Through these associations, her work questions the imaginaries and cultural structures that have traditionally shaped femininity, proposing alternative forms of identity, representation and relationships.
She holds a degree in Photography from the London College of Communication, and subsequently completed the PHotoESPAÑA Master’s Programme and a Master’s Degree in Visual Arts and Education at the University of Barcelona. Her work has been exhibited at institutions, galleries and festivals in Spain and internationally, including PHotoESPAÑA, Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo (CA2M), IVAM, PhotoAlicante, Circulation(s) in Paris, Miami New Media Festival and Arte Santander. She has received, among others, the DKV Acquisition Prize, the Kells Collection Acquisition Prize, the Feria Marte Acquisition Prize and the Alhambra Prize at Abierto Valencia.
Her work is held in the collections of CA2M (Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo), IVAM (Institut Valencià d’Art Modern), DKV Collection, Kells Collection, UPV (Universitat Pública de València Collection) and STUDIOLO Collection.
Exhibitions
