Monika Bravo (born 1964) is a multi-disciplinary artist born in Bogotá, Colombia, who lives and works in New York City, New York. Her work has been internationally exhibited, including at Stenersen Museum in Oslo; Seoul's International Biennial of New Media Art; Bank of the Republic in Bogotá; New Museum and El Museo del Barrio in New York City and Site Santa Fe.[1][2] Her work has received acclaim including a 1999 New York Times review which called her piece Synchronicity (from a group exhibition at El Museo del Barrio) a "standout...small, beautifully blurry video images of boats plowing through New York Harbor..."[3]

Monika Bravo
Born1964
Bogota, Colombia
Known forSynchronicity
MovementAutomythography

In 1982, Bravo left Bogotá, moving to Rome to study fashion design, which she continued in Paris at Esmod, before traveling to London to study photography. In 1994 she moved to New York where she is currently still based.[4][5]

Career

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Among Bravo's most well-known artworks is September 10, 2001, Uno Nunca Muere La Vispera dedicated to artist Michael Richards who died in Tower One on the morning of the September 11 attacks. In summer 2001 Bravo was an artist-in-residence in the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council's World Views program.[6][7] As described in a 2006 book:

On September 10, she spent more than six hours making time-lapse exposures of the boats below, the bridges, and an advancing storm that sent lightning through the night sky, illuminated Tower Two. Around midnight, Bravo gathered her tapes and bid Richards "Good night" as he watched the end of the Giants-Broncos game on Monday Night Football; he had chosen to remain there through morning. Her footage, shown in small venues and on the Internet, would be the last previous glimpse of how those who lived and worked and dreamed in the towers had regarded the city below them.[8]

In 2010, Bravo was one of four winning artists in New York City's "urbancanvas" design competition with her work "Breathing Wall UC".[9]

Most recently Bravo Represented the Vatican City in the Pavilion of the Holy See at the 56th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennial with her work "ARCHE-TYPES: The sound of the word is beyond sense". With this new work, she continues with her interest in coding/decoding information, the interest in the language of abstraction and an ongoing pursuit to decipher reality by means of perception. She created a parallel between the prologue of the Gospel of John In the Beginning..., (given to her by the curator of the Pavilion, Micol Forti), Malevich’s ideas behind Suprematism* and the definition of Zaum by the avant garde Poet Aleksei Kruchenykh**.

Among her most recent exhibitions are Waterweavers curated by José Roca and Alejandro Martín, Art Museum of the Americas, Washington DC 2015, Centro Conde Duque, Madrid 2015 and Bard Graduate Center, New York 2014; Theorem. You Simply Destroy the Image I Always Had of Myself curated by Octavio Zaya, MANA Contemporary, Jersey City NJ 2015; Landscape of Belief (solo), Y Gallery, New York 2015; Affective Architectures, Aluna Art Foundation, Miami FL 2014; URUMU (solo), NC-Arte, Bogotá 2014; Common Ground: Earth, Borusan Contemporary, Istanbul 2014.

Public art

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  • "Breathing_Wall_UC", installation, City Point, Brooklyn[10]
  • "AN INTERVAL OF TIME_UTA _ COMMISSION", Landmarks Public Art Program, University of Texas at Austin has commissioned a time-based installation for their public art collection[11]
  • "AKA_H2O, A panoramic video installation of flowing water and nature scenes by artist Monika Bravo, is projected across a 60-foot wall creating a visually stimulating ambiance.[12]

Selected exhibitions

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Publications

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  • Monika Bravo, Gabriel Cure, Juan Luque (ed.), Gabriel Cure Lemaitre La Arquitectura del Detalle, Two Leaves Editions 2012
  • Ricardo Cisneros, Between Two Worlds, Two Leaves Editions 2011 (Design by Monika Bravo)
  • Stephan Apicella-Hitchcock, Naomi Ben-Shahar, Monika Bravo, Patty Chang, Site Matters: The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council's World Trade Center Artist Residency 1997–2001, LMCC 2004

References

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  1. ^ Biography on Site Santa Fe's Website. URL accessed on 1 February 2014.
  2. ^ Biography on Monika Bravo's Website. URL accessed on 1 February 2014.
  3. ^ a b The New York Times' "Art Review". URL accessed on 1 February 2014.
  4. ^ "20 Questions: Monika Bravo" on The City Paper, 26 February 2013. URL accessed on 1 February 2014.
  5. ^ Myriam Bautista (4 July 2013) "Imágenes en movimiento" El Tiempo (Colombia)
  6. ^ World Views: Participating Artists Archived 2014-02-03 at the Wayback Machine. URL accessed on 1 February 2014.
  7. ^ Tara Bahrampour (September 30, 2001), Losing a Studio, but Not a Calling The New York Times
  8. ^ David Friend, Watching the World Change: The Stories Behind the Images of 9/11 (first edition) Picador 2011, p.145
  9. ^ Press Release Archived 2017-04-24 at the Wayback Machine. URL accessed on 1 February 2014.
  10. ^ Documentation of Urban Canvas' Design Competition. URL accessed on 1 February 2014. Archived November 29, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  11. ^ "Monika Bravo to Create Video Installation for Jackson School | LANDMARKS". Archived from the original on 2014-03-06. Retrieved 2014-02-19.
  12. ^ Rubinstein, Dana (31 May 2011). "AKA's Neighborly Upgrade". Wall Street Journal.
  13. ^ Exhibition announcement on NC-arte's website Archived 2019-05-31 at the Wayback Machine. URL accessed on 1 February 2014.
  14. ^ María Alejandra Toro Vesga, "Con videos, se tejen historias de la Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta". URL accessed on 10 February 2014.
  15. ^ "Mónika Bravo, de la moda al arte". www.fucsia.co. 11 February 2014.
  16. ^ Exhibitions details on the Montclair Art Museum's website Archived 2014-02-19 at the Wayback Machine. URL accessed on 1 February 2014.
  17. ^ "Arquitectura Emocional". Archived from the original on 2016-03-06. Retrieved 2014-02-19.
  18. ^ "Video: Los Proyectos Individuales en ArtBO 2013". 25 October 2013.
  19. ^ Exhibitions on the Brigham Young University Museum of Art's website. URL accessed on 1 February 2014.
  20. ^ Previous exhibitions on the Stenersen Museum's website Archived 2016-01-05 at the Wayback Machine. URL accessed on 1 February 2014.
  21. ^ Description on 3rd Streaming's website Archived 2014-02-04 at the Wayback Machine. URL accessed on 1 February 2014.
  22. ^ Exhibition review on ARTCARDS. URL accessed on 1 February 2014.
  23. ^ The New York Times' "Art: Reviews". URL accessed on 1 February 2014.
  24. ^ Press release on Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery's website. URL accessed on 1 February 2014.
  25. ^ Description on the SITE Santa Fe's website. URL accessed on 1 February 2014.
  26. ^ The New York Times' "Art Guide". URL accessed on 1 February 2014.
  27. ^ De Chiara Gallery's website. URL accessed on 1 February 2014.
  28. ^ Exhibition description on the New Museum's website. URL accessed on 1 February 2014.