Gilda Picabea (Buenos Aires, 1974) delves into the Argentine concrete movement and its connections with Brazil, as well as its optical derivatives in Venezuela and its influences on contemporary art. Her work’s relationship with the tenets of this avant-garde movement goes beyond the use of geometric shapes; Picabea is interested in questioning the visual structures we consider accepted or expected in the configuration of our way of seeing, both in the history of art and in the world at large. In this sense, her goal is to disenchant the gaze through abstraction, paying attention to what has been erased, to discomfort, to absence.
Picabea studied at the the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes Prilidiano Pueyrredón, Buenos Aires (1997-2000). She attended workshops by artists Susana Schnell, Tulio de Sagastizábal, Karina Peisajovich and Cynthia Kampelmacher.
Among her recognitions she has the First Prize for Painting at the 112th National Salon of Visual Arts, Palais de Glace, Buenos Aires, Argentina (2025); the National Acquisition Prize at the 16th Bancor Painting Prize, Córdoba, Argentina (2023); the National Prize, Osde Foundation, Buenos Aires; and the Second Prize at the V Vicentín National Painting Salon, Reconquista, Santa Fe, Argentina (2016).
She has presented the following solo exhibitions: La intención del aire, curator Patrick Greaney. Hache Galería (2026); Deriva Utópica, curator Belén Coluccio. MACBA, Buenos Aires (2024); Sucesiva simultánea, curator Carlos Herrera. Teatro El Círculo, Rosario (2022); 0.21 en la fase de un nuevo comienzo. intervención Banco Ciudad/ arteba 2021, Arenas Studios, Buenos Aires (2021); Un perfil dibujado en el espacio & Distante, HACHE, Buenos Aires, Argentina (2019-2020); Seré feliz, curator Juan José Cambre. HACHE, Buenos Aires, Argentina (2016); INCONCLUSA, HACHE, Buenos Aires, Argentina (2014); Ocultamiento / Distancia / Continuidad, Central de Proyectos, Buenos Aires, Argentina (2011), among others.
In 2022, Picabea presented La línea roja de Lidy Prati at the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (Argentina), a research, artistic intervention and curatorial project she carried out on the museum’s collection of arte concreto which seeks to revalue Prati’s fundamental contribution to the Movimiento Concreto through her intervention in the mythical magazine Arturo. This project was carried out through the Activar Patrimonio 2020 Grant awarded by the Secretaría de Patrimonio del Ministerio de Cultura de la Nación.
Picabea´s work is part of the permanent collection of MACBA – Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Buenos Aires; Museum Tamburini, Córdoba; OSDE Fundation, Buenos Aires; Banco Ciudad, Buenos Aires; Sociedad Rural Argentina; Oxenford Collection; Vicentín, Reconquista, Santa Fé, and another private collections.