Cecilia Paredes Peruvian, b. 1950

Cecilia Paredes explores the theme of identity through ethereal “photo performances,” in which she camouflages her body against beautifully patterned backdrops and disappears amongst the ornamentation. By presenting herself as part of the landscape, Paredes builds her own identity in relation to the part of the world where she lives and raises the question of how our environment influences who we are. Born in Lima, Peru, a country whose early civilizations revered nature, Paredes often disguises herself against flora. The sweeping lines of foliage and the rich hues that paint the backdrop and the artist’s body put her in an intimate conversation with nature. Animals, various objects, and fabric also play a part in the complex layers of Cecilia’s oeuvre. 

 The artist combines natural themes- origins, camouflage, transformation, and her body- to acquire multiple identities through a blend of sculptural recreations and photography. Each element in her body of work reminds the viewer of the fact that humans are but one element in nature, of which the body is a pristine expression. “I wrap, cover, or paint my body with the same material pattern and represent myself as part of that landscape. Through this act, I am working on the theme of building my own identification with the environment where I live or where I feel I can call home.” – Cecilia Paredes. 

Her Fine Arts studies were at the Catholic University of Lima and Cambridge Arts in the UK. In 1998, she was awarded The Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center Residency Program. Paredes lived and worked in Costa Rica from 1998 to 2004 and represented the country at the 51st Venice Biennial in 2005. She now splits her time between Lima, Peru, and Philadelphia, USA. 

 Cecilia Paredes received the 2022 Toro Iberoamerican Honor Prize in Zamora, Spain, and the 2014 International Award for Artistic Excellence at the Pingyao International Festival of Photography. She has exhibited widely in North, South, and Central America, Asia, Australia, and Europe with solo exhibitions at major institutions, including the Museum of Navarra, MUN, Pamplona, Spain; Museum of Latin American Art, Long Beach, CA; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Russia and the Costa Rica Museum of Art, among others. 

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