medina zabo (b.arezzo,it, based in london and tuscany) is a transdiciplinary sculptor whose investigation reflects the fabric of domestication in social learning, across a process-based practice and a multifaceted array of mediums and methods from pop art, land art and renaissance painting. central to their approach are dynamics of metamorphosis and interbeing between human and non-human, as a sociological metaphor of adaptation in human and natural realms mutually, under the lenses of cultural and gender-related patterns. much of zabo’s work stems from a pivotal experience of a six months cohabitation with a honeybee colony swarmed indoors and a mixed background as early embarked on an investigative journalism career.
zabo obtained a MA in communication studies from università degli studi di perugia, a PGCert in new media at IED istituto europeo di design, then went to earn a BA in painting at the fine arts academy pietro vannucci of perugia (awarded the cheng ming grant), and at the fine arts academy of rome (2015-2019). currently pursuing a MFA in arts and humanities at the royal college of art (2023/24)
how do our cyborg-like habits reinvent the nature and the metamorphosis process?
the whole question dawns in my practice from a mixed background and a pivotal experience of a six months cohabitation in 2013 with a colony of honeybees swarmed indoors. both factors have led me into studying pollinators’ social learning in comparison to human behavior towards the dwelling and habitats: in the terms of a mutual influence speculated across socio-biology, anthropology and visual arts altogether.
my viewpoint delves into expressions of social dissonances to foreground throughout materials culturally informed, by the endless process of life and death in natural patterns, and the serial character of man-made features, convened into a non-binary aesthetics.
as the process of metamorphosis traces adaptation, so social frameworks run within changes of status. Defining habitats summon a change of status/state.
what boosts the working method overall is a labor-intensive manipulation of a special organic matter discarded in apiculture as it’s considered unproductive. its specificity comes from cooperation between diverse non-human organisms and the human intervention, over multiple passages by upcycling and curing until it gets the consistency of man-made building materials. the inherent ability to undergo metamorphosis, also hosting further organisms, makes artworks evolve autonomously.
thus the outcome surpasses unpredictably the original design, in a full circle of cooperation between human ends and other organisms’ evolution, including artificial applications. working methods are drawn on renaissance workshops, land art conception and pop art as well, across various sculpting/painting techniques which handle materials akin to ‘domesticated’ environments such as porcelain, steel, iron, fabrics, insulation produ
artrepreneur NY, curators’selection: phantasmagoria, award winner 2020; people’s choice award 2022, shortlisted; orange book 2022, top artrepreneur’s 100 artists
sense_residencies, mabos, museo d’arte del bosco della sila, art commission, catanzaro IT 09*21
pilotenkueche international program, artist in residence, leipzig DE quarter II *21
award-winning o.r.a prize 2018 for artistic research selected by curva pura+roots
13th international arte laguna prize, short-listed and finalist land art section
premio nazionale antonio ranocchia (honorable mention), museo dinamico del laterizio, marsciano IT
acting performer__andreco _”parata della fine – the end of anthropocene era”, contemporary art center luigi pecci, prato, february *17 __ eliza soroga _re-enactment of “women in agony”, arsenale of venice, march *17 __ aram bartholl _wannacry (weeping angels), 57th venice biennale, hyper pavilion, curated philippe riss-schmidt, produced by fabulous inc. may-september *17
artist residencies at beverly pepper’s studio sponsored by fondazione progetti beverly pepper _ (january 2017) (november 2018); opera pr1ma off/beverly featuring accademia di belle arti pietro vannucci; beverly pepper tra todi e il mondo curated by massimo mattioli, sponsored by beverly pepper foundation
creative writing&drawing lecturer, jobel group, rome, autumn *18
private collections_ (rotterdam, NL)(florence, IT)(rome, IT)
public collections_ (procura della repubblica, palazzo martorelli orsini, spoleto, IT_curated accademia di belle arti di perugia) (mabos, museo d’arte del bosco della sila, catanzaro, IT)