My name is Edén Barrena and I am a visual artist working with drawing.
I was born in Badajoz (Extremadura, Spain) in 1991.
I live between my hometown and Bucharest.
Contact
eden.barrena@gmail.com
Artist statement
I am interested in the relationship between the self and the other, and in the estrangement and conflicts caused by this encounter. I reflect on the edges of subjectivity, travel, discovery and representation of the unknown through the exercise of drawing and the action of repetition (seriality, copy, insistence, reproduction, obsession, tradition, study).
The outcome of my practice is a register of small/invisible gestures we found embedded in specific cultural frames: these customs, superstitions or forms of heritage that are on the verge of disappearance. And yet, they have made all the way to our present, like a miraculous long thread, to bond us with who inhabited the world before we got here.
A preference for humble materials and portable formats allows me to generate a sense of intimacy within my work, while enabling my production despite not owning a studio, or when I am on the move. Travelling is a key element of my creative process because it positions me in the roles of the outsider and the other, experimenting first-hand the displacement of the foreigner.
Education
Royal College of Art
Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Suttgart
Universidad Complutense de Madrid
Artist residencies
Sounds Like a Book, Șona, Romania
Chaander Haat, Kolkata, India
A. Farm, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Bananafish Books, Shanghai, China
Swatch Art Peace Hotel, Shanghai, China
Fundación Antonio Gala, Córdoba, Spain
Other prizes and fellowships
Production grant from the Junta de Extremadura
Open Portfolio 2016 Prize, Bilbao
Graduate Print Awards awarded by People of Print, London
Villiers David Travel Award
Royal College of Art Bursary
Solo exhibitions
Muestrario, Sala Europa, Badajoz, 2025 - scheduled
Evidence of Magic, TM Studio Art Space (The West Bund Artistic Center), Shanghai, 2019
I Draw with My Hands, de Pot, Shanghai, 2018
Like a Precious Seam at the Bottom of the Mine, Swatch Art Peace Hotel, Shanghai, 2018
What I Have Done: Open Studio, Swatch Art Peace Hotel, Shanghai, 2017
Inventar al otro, Espacio Joven, Valladolid, 2016
La colonia, Limbo 0 gallery, Córdoba, 2016
Group exhibitions(24) Arte pulsante, Serrería Belga, Madrid - (22) Diez artistas por los derechos humanos, Galería Ángeles Baños, Badajoz - Threads Exhibition, Galeria Posibilă, Bucharest - (20) White Cubes’ Project, Bagpota Village, Kolkota - (19) Contemporary Spanish Graphics, San Stephano Gallery, Sofia - Premio Internacional de Arte Gráfico Jesús Núñez, Fundación CIEC (itinerant exhibition), Galicia - Asia Independent Publishing, Seoul International Book Fair, Coex, Seoul - Aprender a perderse, Biblioteca Miguel de Cervantes, Shanghai - (17) Contemporary Perspectives on Printmaking, Mall Galleries, London - 11e Biennale de Gravure de Liège, La Boverie, Liège - (16) Open Portfolio FIG, Edificio Ensanche, Bilbao - XIV promoción, Fundación Antonio Gala, Córdoba - (15) Sheffield International Artist’s Book Prize, Bank Street Arts, Sheffield - Haptic and Optic Portfolio Exhibition, Yantai Modern Gallery, Yantai; Shenzhen Baotu Library Gallery, Shenzhen; Yuquanshan Art Gallery, Beijing - IMPACT9, The China Academy of Arts, Hangzhou - PR!NT: Impressions & Expressions, La Cambre Galerie 425, Brussels - HIX Award, CNB Gallery, London - Human Nature, The Archive Gallery, London - RCA Degree Show, Royal College of Art, London - Lean-to, Tenderbooks, London - Stewarts Law RCA Secret, Dyson Gallery, Royal College of Art, London / Dubai - Objects of, Cafe Gallery, London - (14) Hong Kong Graphic Art Fiesta, Jockey Club Creative Arts Centre, Hong Kong - Hoarding, City Gallery, Peterborough - Skin/Cells, Fringe! Festival, London - Indie-vision, Metal Culture, Peterborough - PopArtCube, ArtCube Gallery, London - Stewarts Law RCA Secret, Dyson Gallery, Royal College of Art, London - Yesterday’s Wrong Thinking, Café Gallery, London - WIP Show, Royal College of Art, London - (13) Rundgang, Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Stuttgart - ZigZag, Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Stuttgart
Art fairs(22) Polycopies, Concorde-Atlantique boat - Berges de Seine, Paris - (19) Shanghai abC Art Book Fair, Modern Art Museum, Shanghai - Tokyo Art Book Fair, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Tokyo - Beijing abC Art Book Fair, Times Art Museum, Beijing - UNFOLD Shanghai Art Book Fair, M50, Shanghai - (18) Shanghai abC Art Book Fair, Modern Art Museum, Shanghai - Picnic Art Festival, Qiao Space, Shanghai - (17) Festival Internacional de Grabado, Palacio Euskalduna, Bilbao - GRAF Barcelona 2017, La Fàbrica de la Creació Fabra i Coats, Barcelona - (16) Festival Internacional de Grabado, Palacio Euskalduna, Bilbao - (15) Multiplied Art Fair 2015, Christie’s South Kensington, London - Offprint London, Turbine Hall, TATE Modern, London - East London Comic Arts Festival, The Laundry, London - Turn the Page, The Forum, Norwich
Publications
Un baúl con ropa blanca, 2024 - available here
Some Notes on the Use of Textiles in Șona, 2022 - available here
The Promise of Blooming, 2018 - available here
Un niño siempre distinto, 2016 - available here
The Other, 2015 - available here
Cinematic Drawings, 2014 - available here
© Edén Barrena, 2025