MARTACARMELA SOTELO
“My passion in all art and design disciplines is wearable art. For me, a jewellery piece is an invitation for reflexion. I like when my pieces activate the memories of the users, personal as well as collectively and when the pieces can tell a story.”
Re-construction collection, AQUA, 2018
ABOUT
Martacarmela Sotelo is architect, artist and designer, dedicated to jewellery design. She is living and working in Mexico City. Sotelo studied architecture at Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico city and continued with an MA in Fine Arts at London at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design. She was part of the incubator studio program sponsored by the Arts Council of England. Back in Mexico she was awarded with the “Jovenes Creadores” scholarship by FONCA. She was selected for “Artemergente”, National Biennale in Monterrey, Mexico. Later on she was selected for an art residency in La Curtiduria in Oaxaca. In 2009 she began working and developing her “wearable art” project. Made out of different materials and forms assembled in non-conventional ways the jewellery she crafts as well as the art pieces are unique. Her pieces have been featured around the World: in the MoMA Store in New York within the ‘Destination Mexico’ platform, at the AGO Museum in Toronto, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, at Bettina Flament Gallery in Lille, at Marion Friedmann Gallery in London, at Galeria Mexicana de Diseño in Mexico City, at the 4th IEEB International experimental printmaking Biennale in Rumania, at “Think Again: New Latin American Jewellery” at the MAD museum in New York, at the Bellevue Arts Museum in Seattle. She participated in the “Urdimbres Itinerantes” National textile Biennial in Mexico, the “Botánica” exhibition at Medellín Ciento Setenta y Cuatro gallery and at the Hernandez museum in Buenos Aires, Argentina. From 2012-2015 she was director in Mexico for the Otro-Diseño Foundation for Cultural Cooperation and Development, a non-profit organization based in the Netherlands. She has also collaborated as a freelance designer for the famous Mexican silver brand TANE. In 2009 she began working and developing her "wearable art" project. Made out of different materials and forms assembled in non-conventional ways the jewellery she crafts as well as the art pieces are unique. Sotelo develops her work out of a strong concept and idea, with a narrative and story. They are conceptual works, where the wearer is invited to interact and think.
NEW COLLECTION 2020
CONTAINERS, NECKLACES
Materials and techniques: constructed steel wire and powder coating
“We all have something to keep, sometimes we hold it within something, it occupies a space, it is kept inside and out of limits. Sometimes it is within us. It is a special something, to be held and contained. These necklaces are composed of a series of Containers, each holding together one vessel after another.”
DETAILS of collection
JOURNEY THROUGH SOTELO’S COLLECTIONS, 2008 - 2020
MIRRORGEMS, brooches, 2018
Blackened silver (lost wax casting), mirror-like elements of discarded phone screens, inox steel.
“People used to think to find answers of the past and future peeking through mirrors. A tradition also found with the Aztecs, where they used black Obisidan stone. We spend more and more time staring at the phone screen. Our phones have become very precious. We look for photos, maps, directions, recipes, memories, appointments, weather forecasts, news, traffic and even love. These mirror screens have become part of our lives. I want to show these old screens as something precious, gem-like, contained in organic structural shapes of silver.”
ACAPULCO STONE, collection 2017
blackened silver, plastic debris found on the beach of Acapulco
This collection creates awareness about the plastic debris in our oceans in elevating the trash to a gem status. The plastic trash is married with silver and transformed into bold jewellery pieces.
SCAFFOLDING - ANDAMIAJE - COLLECTION, 2017
material: fused iron, guilded silver nickel, brass and powder coating.
“Scaffolding is a temporary structure to support construction works. It is like a base and the start to create. With the arrangement of basic forms like polygons one can start to think of architecture and to design a space. The basic material used in these pieces is Iron, the junctions are careless, my main focus being on its strength for the erection of a structure. The roughness of its look invites you to think that the piece is not yet finished. It invites you to think what it could become, in a dream, in a future. You, the wearer, start with my proposal and will hopefully make it your own dream...”
DIABLERO, collection, 2017
Materials: silver nickel, powder coating, climbing rope, silver
“Astonished and aware of the constant buzz of people pushing hand trolleys in downtown Mexico city. But above all impressed by the so-called “Diableros”, the handlers carrying those enormous amounts of parcels and cargo with their own strnegth (the word derives from the word ‘Diablito’- a hand trolley). I started to look at the mutations of these little wheeled transport devices, like the welded-on alterations or the attached strings and wrappings allowing them to carry up to 700 kg in a single ride. The folds, extensions, laces, strings and new structures in the end became these new hybrid jewellery pieces. The spaces created and adapted for the packages are different in every ride a Diablero undertakes. These new Diablero inspired pieces are the result of these observations.”
PORTABLE LINES, collection, 2008
materials: pre-loved old garments, textile threads
Out of beloved, out-of-use or damaged garments, Sotelo makes one-of-a-kind wearable art pieces. The garments are cut out, with the main structure and eventual interesting elements remaining. Then this cloth-skeleton is wrapped with threads of different color and type. The garment once covering the body has gained a second life as jewelry that can be worn in various ways, every single time worn changing its form and layout on the body of the wearer. Sotelo can transform a grandmother’s moth-holed wedding dress back to life as jewelry and free oneself from the burden of the memories one thought to lose when disposing of such a momentous object.
This collection was presented in the Marion Friedmann Gallery show, “RECOLLECTIONS” during the London Design Festival 2012.
CV/BIO
Education
2018-ongoing MA Business, Innovation and Creativity, CENTRO, Mexico city
2001-02 MA Fine Arts, Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, London, UK
2000-01 BTEC, Chelsea Collage of Art, London, UK
1992-96 BA in Architecture, University Iberoamericana, Mexico City, México
Her contemporary jewellery work has been showcased in different museums and Galleries in Mexico and around the world. In México at the Franz Mayer Museum, Rufino Tamayo Museum, National Museum of Popular Arts, CONARTE Museum, Amparo Museum, Palace of Iturbide Museum, Arocena Museum and different art Galleries. In the USA at the MAD (Museum of art & Design) in NY, Bellevue Arts Museum in Seattle, Houston Centre for the Contemporary Art, Indiana University in Kokomo among others. Around the world in the Beaux Arts Museum in Talinn, Estonia, Hernandez Museum and Recoleta Cultural Centre in Buenos Aires Argentina. Marion Friedmann Gallery in London, UK, Bettina Flament Gallery in L’Ille in France and recently in A/dornment Gallery in Venice. She has participated in Design Week NY, London and México and LOOT 2014 in the Museum of Art and Design in NY. She was awarded the design award “Quórum” in 2012 and shortlisted for the National Silver prize “Hugo Salinas Price” and “La Colecta” in Mexico.
EXHIBITIONS & GRANTS
Solo Exhibitions
2006, con-tacto, La Caja Gallery, Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico
2005, con-tacto a la memoria, ICBC, Tijuana, Baja California, México
2005, con-tacto a la memoria, Laboratory of Contemporary Art Gallery, Mexico
2001, Maca’s New Work, Art Gecko Gallery, San Francisco, CA, USA
Group Exhibitions
2019, Corn Rituals, El Hueso, Guadalajara, México
2019, Re-Constructions, Centro in Zona MACO, México city, México
2018, Visión y tradición, Anthropology Museum, México city, México
2018, Inédito, Rufino Tamayo Museum, México city, México
2018, Tincallab Challenge, Tincallab Challenge, Oporto, Portugal
2018, Mexico Dsign Time, Marion Friedman Gallery, London, UK
2018, Yo vivo y trabajo en CDMX, portraits in Chapultepec Fence, México city, México
2018, Vecinos, Bienal latinoamericana de Joyeria Contempotánea, Museo Hernandez Buenos Aires, Argentina
2018, Huella, Museo Juan del Corral, Sta Fe de Antioquía, Colombia
2018, Vitraria Galleri, Venecia, Italia
2018, Wearable Art, El Hueso, Guadalajara Jalisco
2018, La Frontera, Museum of Art and Design MAD, NY, EUA
2017, About Volumes, Vitraria Gallery, Venice, Italy
2017, Reflexiones, Abierto Mexicano de Diseño, Franz Mayer Museum, México city, México
2017, Inédito, Rufino Tamayo Museum, México city, México
2017, Flos-Insectum, Zona Maco, México city, México
2017, About Volumes, A/dornment Gallery, Venice, Italy
2017, Lo inesperado de lo Cotidiano, Minería Museum, Pachuca, Hidalgo, Mexico
2016, Inédito, Design Week México, Tamayo Museum, México city, Mexico
2016, La colecta, La Miscelánea Art Gallery, Puebla, Mexico
2016, Lo inesperado de lo Cotidiano, Clock Tower, Mexico city, México
2016, Manifiesto Colectivo, Industrial de Arte Gallery, México city, México
2016, Union for Studio Roca, Zona MACO, México
2015, National Silver price, Museum of Folk Art, México city, Mexico
2015, Lo inesperado de lo Cotidiano, Valapraiso, Chile
2015, Una palada de ayuda, auction for the CMIC, México
2015, Vision y Tradición, Design Week México, Clock Tower, Mexico city, México
2015, Mexico Creative Territory, Wanted Design, Design Week NY, USA
2014, Think Twice New Latin American jewellery, Franz Mayer Museum, Mexico
2014, Amuletos Joya viva, Popular Cultures Museum, Mexico city, México
2014, LOOT at the MAD, Museum of Art and Design NY, USA
2014, La Frontera, Indiana University, Kokomo, USA
2014, Amuletos Joya viva, Cultural Center Las Condes, Santiago, Chile
2014, 70 years of TANE, Franz Mayer Museum, Mexico city, México
2014, La Frontera, Houston Center for the contemporary Art, Houston, USA
2014, Artificios Plata y Diseño en México 1880-2012, CASA, Oaxaca, México
2014, Think Twice: New Latin American Jewlery, Arocena Museum, Coahuila, Mx
2013, Think Twice: New Latin American Jewlery, Fine Arts Museum, Tallin, Estonia
2013, Artificios Plata y Diseño en México 1880-2012, Amparo Museum, Puebla, Mx
2013, Casa Gutierrez Najera, Zona Maco, Mexican Contemporary Art Fair, México
2013,Think Twice: New Latin American Jewlery, CONARTE, Monterrey, NL, México
2013, La Frontera, Franz Mayer Museum, México
2013, La Frontera, Velvet Da Vinci Gallery, San Francisco, Ca, USA
2013, Made in Mexico, Rufino Tamayo Museum, Mexico city, México
2013, Parallel, Galería Mexicana de Diseño, Mexico city, México
2012, Artificios Plata y Diseño en México 1880-2012, Iturbide Palace, Mexico
2012, Recollections, Marion Friedmann Gallery, Old Sorting Office, London, UK
2012, Premios Quorum, Franz Mayer Museum, Mexico city, México
2011, Think Twice: New Latin American Jewellery, BAM, Seattle, USA
2011, International Textile Biennale in jewellery, UNAM, Mexico City, México
2011, Botanics, Medellín 174 Gallery, Mexico City, México
2011, Botanics, Hernandez Museum, Buenos Aires, Argentina
2010, International Experimental Printmaking, IEEB4, Bucharest, Rumania
2010, Think Again: New Latin American Jewellery, NY, USA
2010, 20/20, Mexican Galery of Design”, Mexico City, México
2009, Printmaking as a contemporary art practice, TAGA, Oaxaca, Mexico
2009, Object-Art, Emilia Cohen Gallery, Mexico city, México
2009, Non Toxic, nave de Generadores, Monterrey, México
2008, Multiple, Multiple Contemporary art Gallery, Mexico City, México
2007, Segundo Informe, Castañeda 44, Mexico City, México
2007, Creation in Movement, Francisco Cossio Museum, San Luis Potosí, México 2006, Rhizome, ICBC, Tijuana, México
2006, Ejemplares, National Museum of Print, México city, México
2006, Artemergente National Biennale of art, CONARTE, Nuevo León, México
2005, International Art in Charlotte, Levine Museum of the New South, NC, USA
2005, Rhizome, Leopoldo Flores Museum, Toluca, México
2004, Mexican Artists, Gina Dalma Gallery, North Caroline, USA
2004, Two Forces, Keller Festival, Petaluma, USA
2003, Unframed, Cupola Gallery, Sheffield, UK
2002, Ford Exhibition, Oxford House, London
2002, Cinco, London Business School, London
Curatorial experience
2019, Corn Rituals (contemporary jewellery exhibition), co-curation with Ines de la Garza, El Hueso, Guadalajara, México
2017, Reflexions: Collection of rare and antique books formthe Franz Mayer Museum, (contemporary jewellery exhibition), co-curation with Lorena Lazard, Franz Mayer Museum, Mexico City
Grants, Awards and Residences
2018, Vision & Tradition, Design Week, William Spratling Ranch in Taxco Mexico
2017, Design Mexico, shortlisted, Frans Mayer Museum, Mexico
2016, La colecta, 3rd place La Colecta.mx, México
2015, Vision & Tradition, Design Week, state of Chiapas
2015, Honorary Mention National Silver Award, Hugo Salinas Price, México
2012, QUORUM, Quorum national design prize, Mexico
2009, Printmaking as a contemporary art practice Art residency, La Curtiduría, Oaxaca, México
2006-07, Jovenes Creadores, FONCA grant, Mexico city, Mexico
2002-03, Incubator studio program “Space”, Arts council of England, European Regional Development Fund and the London Development Agency; London, UK
2002, New British Talent, finalist, The Observer Magazine,London, UK