bio
medina zabo (arezzo *79, lives and works in etruria and london) is a cross-disciplinary artist whose investigation finds expression and spans methods from pop art, land art and renaissance painting throughout a process-based and multimedia practice. central to their approach are issues and dynamics of colonization/domestication and metamorphosis mutually in human communities and natural environments, as a sociological metaphor and contemporary simulacra. much of zabo’s work stems from a pivotal experience of a six months cohabitation with a honeybee colony in the house. after an early career as a journalist and video reporter focused on environmental and social topics, in 2012 medina quit to pursue exclusively their path to becoming an artist.
2005_ MA in communication studies, università degli studi di perugia, degree dissertation in semiotics
2010_ PGCert in new media, IED istituto europeo di design, rome campus
2015-2019_ BFA painting program, alumna of accademia di belle arti pietro vannucci, perugia (awarded chen ming fellowship); alumna of accademia di belle arti di roma
how do we colonise the matter?
the whole question dawns on my practice from a mixed educational background and a pivotal experience of a six months cohabitation in 2013 with a colony of honeybees swarmed at home. both factors have led me into studying pollinators’ social learning in comparison to human behavior as well as to deepen a likely mutual influence by occurrences merged with socio-biology, anthropology and visual arts altogether.
i seek for expressions of social dissonance to foreground throughout a multifaceted language that explores conceptions and materials within different disciplines and aesthetics, encompassing natural and domestic habitats. and the consequent insight develops primarily a process-oriented practice focused on metamorphosis such a metaphor of social frameworks, as well as a contemporary ontology that involves a change of status, either conceptually or in its ultimate design.
what boosts the creative process is a special kind of organic hardened and calcified matter, whose ability to undergo metamorphosis makes artworks evolve autonomously and conveys a meaningful metaphor of social conflicts and inter group-rivalries in natural environments.
it’s a special kind of bone tissue-like beeswax, that doesn’t melt, sourced from collapsed hives due to infestation by great wax moth (aka galleria mellonella); i eventually up-cycle honeycombs with flames and several stages of actions along seasons to handle in the manner of man-made construction materials, until the combs crumble and get solid as mosaic tiles. by redesigning the ultimate spinneret, bees first construct nests made of cells, moths colonise them and build a whole new scenario, far from any anthropocentric vision and related aesthetics: although we take over our candy-coloured simulacrum of nature, moths may come back again dwelling and altering all that made latterly, in a full circle of cooperation between human ends and diverse organisms.
because of that, the creative process triggers itself a thought-provoking dialogue between never-ending processes of nature and the serial character of man-made features, tapping into metals, clay, porcelain, materials used in modern architecture and domestic habitats. working methods are those from renaissance oil painting, land art conception and street art as well, plugged in across various sculpting techniques.
..how’s living with bees? get a peek!
sense_residencies, mabos, artist in residence at mabos museo d’arte del bosco della sila, art commission, catanzaro 09*21
pilotenkueche international program, artist in residence, corporate sponsors, leipzig 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
artrepreneur_org NY curators’ selection: phantasmagoria, award winner 2020; people’s choice award 2022, shortlisted; orange book 2022 top artrepreneur’s 100 artists NY
member of ACAVA community (association for cultural advancement through visual art) *22
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 bp foundation
hdemia de rooms, delollis underground art collective, rome, october *18; sciame-project artist collective *19-20
creative writing&drawing lecturer, jobel group, rome, autumn *18
private collector, rotterdam, NL
private collector, florence, IT
private collector, rome, IT
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