Concha Jerez

Concha Jerez (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 1941) is a Spanish multidisciplinary artist known as a pioneer in conceptual art. One of the central axes of her work is the critical analysis of the media.

Artistic career Concha Jerez studied piano at the Madrid Royal Conservatory, and in 1958–1959 she obtained a scholarship to Washington-Lee High School in Arlington, Virginia, where she became interested in political and social affairs. This led her to study for her licentiate in political science at the Complutense University of Madrid.

In 1970 she decided to dedicate herself to visual arts, and held her first exhibition in 1973.

As she began her career under the threat of censorship by the Franco regime, the role of the media, censorship, and self-censorship have often been present in her artistic work. In 1976 she presented her first large installation, Autocensura, still restricted to printed paper. In 1983 she exhibited the installation Retorno al comienzo at the Museo Vostell Malpartida. Later she opened the doors to the use of all kinds of new technological possibilities, such as video, interactive installations, photographs, and pure audio installations.

Jerez has been an organizer, co-organizer, and grassroots militant of various associations of women and artists,

In 2018 she participated in the collective exhibition organized by the CentroCentro, La NO comunidad, with the work Soliloquios cotidianos. This was presented as an essay on loneliness in the modern world.

Also in 2018, on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the Constitution of Spain, her installation Textos autocensurados.Versión 1,1976 was among works selected from the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía for the exhibition El poder del arte, which was located for the first time in the houses of the Congress of Deputies and the Senate.

Awards and recognitions 2011: Gold Medal of Merit in the Fine Arts 2012: Asociación de Mujeres en las Artes Visuales Award 2015: National Award for Plastic Arts 2017: 2018: