Mónica Mays
*1990, lives and works in Madrid and Zurich
Mónica Mays is a Spanish-American artist whose sculptural practice investigates the infrastructures through which ideology takes material form. Her work begins with specific objects that resist stable meanings, following the contradictory lives they acquire as they circulate across time and systems of belief. Working primarily through sculpture and installation, she reconfigures domestic and industrial remnants through accumulation and assemblage. Rather than treating materials as symbols, she approaches them as historical actors shaped by use, abuse, ritual and desire.
Archival research and fieldwork provide the point of departure, but the work privileges affect over explanation. Drawing from the Baroque as both a formal language and a logic, Mays constructs sculptural environments where historical inquiry becomes sensorial experience, and where contradiction is cultivated rather than resolved. Objects are allowed to remain unstable, accumulating incompatible meanings rather than settling into fixed identities.
Mays studied Cultural Anthropology at the University of New Orleans before graduating from the École Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Strasbourg in 2015 and receiving an MA from the Sandberg Instituut in Amsterdam in 2017. Her work has been presented internationally at the Henry Moore Institute (Leeds), Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, Tallinn Art Hall, Kunstfort bij Vijfhuizen, Pedro Cera (Madrid), Blue Velvet Projects (Zurich), Gratin (New York) and La Casa Encendida (Madrid), among others. She has participated in residencies including Rupert (Vilnius), Matadero Madrid and Cemeti Institute for Art and Society (Yogyakarta).
Her work is held in the collections of the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, CA2M Museo Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo, Alkar Contemporary, Fundación Calparsoro, Collection d'art de la Mobilière, Yan Du Collection and Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo among others. Recent projects include Statements at Art Basel, the solo exhibition Blinds and Shutters at Gratin, New York, and Pulgar for Abierto x Obras at Matadero Madrid. She is the recipient of the ARCO Art Prize, the Mondriaan Fonds Young Talent Grant, the Amsterdam Fund for the Arts 3PD Award and Generaciones from Fundación Montemadrid.
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Education
2015-2017 MIA / MA Studio for Immediate Spaces, Sandberg Instituut, Amsterdam NL
2011-2015 BFA Cum Laude, HEAR / École Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs de Strasbourg FR
2010-2011 Liberal Arts, La Sorbonne, Paris FR
2008-2010 Anthropology, University of New Orleans USA
Selected solo exhibitions
2027 Pedro Cera, Lisbon PT (upcoming)
2026 Oasys Mini Hollywood, Statements sector with Blue Velvet, Art Basel, Basel CH
2026 Blinds and Shutters, Gratin, New York USA
2026 Pulgar, Matadero, Madrid ES
2025 ridden, Blue Velvet, Zurich CH
2024 Fueled, Oasis, Fueled, Pedro Cera, Madrid ES
2024 Eventually, Eden, Cibrián, Donostia-San Sebastián ES
2024 Si plou així que, no escampi!, Fabra i Coats, Barcelona ES
2023 Buttermilk, Blue Velvet Projects, Zurich CH
2023 Old sky, old dirt, new grass, Travesía Cuatro, Madrid ES
2023 Dones per l’art, DKV collection, Atarazanas del Grau, Valencia ES
2023 If we remain silent, collaboration with Ana Bravo, Casco Art Institute, Utrecht NL
2023 The Serpent Bearer, duo, curated by Pina Benfeld, Lucas Hirsch, Düsseldorf DE
2023 Desengaño, curated by YCRP Sandretto Foundation, Ateneo, Madrid ES
2023 Cardados, De Appel Arts Center, Amsterdam NL
2022 Tallo que Clavo, Twin Gallery, Madrid ES
2021 Bucolic Gang, Virgin Maria Church, Rupert, Vilnius LT
2021 Sand Shine, Aparador Monteleón, Madrid ES
2020 Unsayings, Industra Gallery, Brno CZ
2019 Homies, Corridor PS, Amsterdam NL
2018 Auricula, Amsterdam Open Tuinen Dag / Music for Plants, Amsterdam NL
2018 w.i.l.l.i.a.m., Bologna.cc, Amsterdam NL
2016 ooo.ooo, A Place Beyond Desire, Rietveld Pavilion, Amsterdam NL
Selected group exhibitions
2027 TBA, Museo Sorolla, Madrid, ES (upcoming)
2026 To pass from one dream to another, 18th Lyon Biennale of Contemporary Art, Lyon, FR (upcoming)
2026 Sculpture beyond the solid, Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw, PL (upcoming)
2026 Under the skin, MO.CO., Montpellier
2026 Moths, Centre d'Art de la Chapelle de Boondael, Art Brussels
2025 Chi Esce Entra, Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max Planck Institute for Art History, Roma IT
2025 El sueño de una serpiente, Luis Adelantado, Valencia
2025 Fragment and Form, Henry Moore Institue, Leeds UK
2025 On immanence, Pedro Cera, Lisbon PT
2025 Tout sera oublié et rien ne sera réparé, Dvir, Paris FR
2024 Calling things that don't have names, Copperfield, London UK
2024 If only we could master miracles, Kunstfort bij Vijfhuizen, Vijfhuizen NL
2024 Carpenter’s Gothic, Someday Gallery, New York USA
2024 Residency 2024, Cemeti Institut for Art and Society, Yogyakarta Indonesia
2024 SMA7, Arti et Amicitiae, Amsterdam NL
2023 Old sky, old dirt, new grass, Travesía Cuatro, Madrid ES
2023 Bodies of Resistance, Galeria Pedro Cera, Lisbon PT
2022 How long is an echo?, Städtische Galerie KUBUS, Hannover DE
2022 Her Legs, an Egg, Her Toil(e) and Blankets, curated by Keiu Krikmann, Linnagalerii, Tallinn Art Hall, Estonia EE
2022 fundamental ocurrences, Brussels Art Week, Nosbaum Reding, Brussels BE
2022 Reina Sofia Museum, ARCO, Madrid ES
2022 Getting Lost In the Woods, curated by Cristina Anglada, Twin Gallery, Madrid ES
2021 Forest and Shade, Museum of Segovia, Museum Segovia, Palacio Butron Valladolid (itinerant) ES
2020 I’m not your territory, Atelier Chiffonier, Dijon FR
2019 Hypnequinomagia, Combo & Microlima, Venice IT
2018 Conversations w/ Figaro, Museum Nacht, Museum Willet-Holthuysen, Amsterdam NL
2017 Art-Cure. Activating the Potential, Cobra Museum of Modern Art, Amsterdam NL
2016 Instant Composition, Extra City Kunsthal, Antwerpen BE
2016 Bienal Arte Contemporaneo Emergente, Eve-Maria Zimmerman, Tenerife ES
Awards / Honors / Residencies
2025 Arco prize young talent
2025 IX Alhambra prize emerging art
2024 XVII Illy SustainArt prize
2024 Selected NN Awards
2024 Cemeti Institute for Art and Society Residency, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
2023 Selected Premi Miquel Casablancas
2023 Ceramicres Co-net Residency Alcora
2023 Selected Nebrija Art Prize
2022-23 Young Talent Stipendium, Mondriaan Fonds, Netherlands
2022 Landescape Residency Italy
2022 Dogo Residency Lichtensteig
2021 Matadero Residency Madrid
2021 Generación 2022 Prize, La Casa Encendida
2021 Bilbao Arte Foundation grant
2021 Visual Arts 3PD Prize, Amsterdam Fonds voor de Kunst
2020 Rupert Residency Vilnius
2020 Young Talent Sculpture Prize Castilla y León
2019 Project Grant, Amsterdam Fonds voor de Kunst
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Buckaroo, tarred and feathered, 2026 saddle, leather, vellum, fur, cardboard, wax, feathers, wood, steel 142 x 85 x 101 cm
Vanity, 2026 silver nitrate mirror, miscellaneous objects, archival images, lamp, artist frame
She Had Brushed, Powdered and Burnt Oil, 2024 stoneware, palm trees, iron, wood, miscellaneous pieces from abandoned factories, collagen 167 x 188 x 40 cm
Breeding value, 2023 wood, glass, vellum, wool, feathers, cocoons, aluminium, brass 59.5 x 146 x 184.5 cm
Short Limbs Tread Softly Lubricated Dumbbells, 2024 stoneware, palm trees, iron, wood, miscellaneous pieces from abandoned factories, collagen 209 x 16 x 20 cm
Cultivos / Cultures I, 2022 wood, silk, flowers, leaves, brass, bombyx more 66 x 49 x 4 cm