Biography
Sandra Vásquez de la Horra, born in Viña del Mar, Chile, in 1967, grew up in a Catholic family under Augusto Pinochet’s authoritarian regime. After studying at the University for Design in Viña del Mar from 1989 to 1994, Vásquez de la Horra moved to Germany, where she enrolled at Düsseldorf Art Academy under Jannis Kounellis and Rosemarie Trockel before attending the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne. She currently lives and works in Berlin.
 
Sandra Vásquez de la Horra’s drawings are influenced by film, fairy tales and botanical and zoological textbooks, as well as from her personal background. Since 1997, the Artist finishes her drawings by dipping them in wax. This process gives her work a unique materiality and emphasises the pencil line with ambiguous depth.
 
The traditions and myths of her Chilean origins and the influence of Latin-American magic-realist literature are essential in her artistic practice. Religion, mythology, sexuality and the bizarre, reverberate and merge together, trapped beneath the wax coating of her drawings. Her works deal with borderline experiences, femininity, fear and death, as well as poetry, reawakening demons, ghosts, creatures of myth and gloomy dreams.
 
Her extremely defined images show desires that stem from both her personal and a wider universal experience: they appear ecstatic, traumatic and surrealistic. Frequently working while she travels, her drawings are often stowed in her luggage, functioning as a sort of pictorial diary.
 
Her work has been exhibited in Sprovieri Gallery, London (2022); Centro Andalusia de Arte Contemporáneo, Cordoba, Spain; Kupfestich-Kabinet, Dresden, Germany (2021); Drawing Biennal, London, United Kingdom (2019); The Parkview Museum, Singapore (2017); Museum für moderne Kunst, Breman (2016); S.M.A.K., Gent (2015); Albertina, Vienna (2015).
 
Solo shows include: Akademie der Künste Berlin (2024); Sächsische Akademie der Künste, Dresden, Germany (2021); Museo Novecento, Florence, Italy (2019); “Sao Paulo Biennal” curated by Luis Pérez-Oramas, Sao Paulo Brazil (2012); Musée d’Art Moderne, St-Etienne (2011); Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht (2010); the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (2017, 2011, 2009) and the Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf (2008).
 
Vásquez de la Horra was awarded in 2023 the prestigious Käthe Kollwitz Prize 2023 of the Akademie der Künste, Berlin, Germany; The Guerlain Prize in 2019 and in 2021 received the Hans Theo Ritcher Prize. Her work is part of various public and private collections such as: Centre Pompidou, Paris; Pinakothek der Moderne, München; Museum Kunst Palast, Düsseldorf; Museum of Art, Philadelphia; among others.
 
The Artist has been invited to the 59th International Art Exhibition of la Biennale di Venezia 2022 “The Milk of Dreams” curated by Cecilia Alemani. During Frieze 2022, the artwork ‘’Despierta Te Espero’’ realised by the artist has been acquired by the Frieze Tate Fund, supported by Endeavor and is now part of the Tate Collection.
 
A collection of her work was featured in the “Murmor of Cosmos” exhibition at the Akademie der Künste in the summer of 2024.
Works
  • Sandra Vasquez de la Horra, El Despertar, 2024
    Sandra Vasquez de la Horra
    El Despertar, 2024
    Graphite pencil, watercolour, gouache on paper, wax
    79 x 180 x 9 cm
  • Sandra Vasquez de la Horra, You, My Angel, 2024
    Sandra Vasquez de la Horra
    You, My Angel, 2024
    Graphite pencil, watercolour, gouache on paper, wax
    55,6 x 190 x 9 cm
  • Sandra Vasquez de la Horra, El Reposo, 2023
    Sandra Vasquez de la Horra
    El Reposo, 2023
    Aquarelle, graphite on paper dipped in beeswax
    78 x 106 cm
  • Sandra Vasquez de la Horra, Altares (RETABLO), 2022
    Sandra Vasquez de la Horra
    Altares (RETABLO), 2022
    aquarelle, graphite on paper dipped in beeswax
    99 x 77 cm
  • Sandra Vasquez de la Horra, Dimensions, 2022
    Sandra Vasquez de la Horra
    Dimensions, 2022
    watercolour, gouache, graphite on paper dipped in beeswax
    211 x 157 cm
  • Sandra Vasquez de la Horra, Estrella de la Mañana, 2022
    Sandra Vasquez de la Horra
    Estrella de la Mañana, 2022
    watercolour, gouache, graphite on paper dipped in beeswax
    201 x 132 cm
  • Sandra Vasquez de la Horra, La Mujer laberinto, 2020
    Sandra Vasquez de la Horra
    La Mujer laberinto, 2020
    Watercolour, graphite on paper dipped in beeswax
    40 x 30 cm
  • Sandra Vasquez de la Horra, Fata Morgana, 2019
    Sandra Vasquez de la Horra
    Fata Morgana, 2019
    Tridimensional drawing, graphite on paper dipped in beeswax
    36 x 30 x 36 cm
Exhibitions
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