Isabelle Albuquerque’s formally powerful and psychologically charged sculpture invites multiple, simultaneous readings and perspectives. With a background in performance, Albuquerque uses her own body to investigate the protean nature of identity and to create a cross-temporal conversation that centers the experiences of women and their own connection to desire, sexuality and embodiment. In her latest series of sculptures, Orgy for 10 People in One Body, Albuquerque marries ancient and contemporary technologies such as 3D scanning and robotic carving, rendered across multiple materials each with their own agency and complex history. These life size sculptures transition from bronze, wood, plaster, rubber, and wax to synthetic resins and human hair. Empathetic, subversive, confrontational and steeped in cultural memory, these works are often caught in an intangible state of transformation that speaks to the dynamics of sexuality, violence and power throughout human history and to our present volatile moment - where the very idea of the human and the limits of the body are being confronted with unprecedented metamorphosis. She will present works from that series alongside new works from Alien Spring, a new series which will be presented in total at Nicodim New York in May 2025.
Albuquerque (b. 1981) studied architecture and theater at Barnard College and lives and works in her native Los Angeles. Exhibitions include Alien Spring, Nicodim, New York (solo, forthcoming, 2025); Echoes of Eden: A Return to Bosch's Garden, curated by Gaïa Jacquet-Matisse and Peter Brant Jr., Private residence, New York (2024); Post Human, Jeffrey Deitch, Los Angeles (2024); DISEMBODIED, curated by Ben Lee Ritchie Handler, Nicodim, Los Angeles (2024); MATERNITY LEAVE: NONE OF WOMEN BORN, Nicodim in collaboration with the Green Family Art Foundation, Dallas (2023); Orgy for Ten People in One Body, Jeffrey Deitch, New York (2022, solo); BodyLand, curated by Lauren Taschen, Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin (2022); Skin in the Game, curated by Zoe Lukov, Chicago (2022) and Miami (2021); The Emerald Tablet, curated by Ariana Papademetropolous, Jeffrey Deitch, Los Angeles (2021); Nuestrxs Putxs, Human Resources, Los Angeles (2021); and Sextet, Nicodim, Los Angeles (2020, solo). Albuquerque’s work has appeared in numerous publications including The New York Times, Artforum, L’officiel, and Flash Art. Last year she released Orgy for Ten People in One Body (Jeffrey Deitch, Nicodim, Pacific, 2023), a 450 page monograph about the series that includes conversations with the artists Miranda July and Arthur Jafa.