Selva Aparicio

Working across sculpture and installation, Selva Aparicio (b. 1987, Barcelona; based in New York) examines the boundaries between mourning and materiality, intimacy and decay. Her practice transforms overlooked materials—ranging from cemetery flowers and cicada wings to human hair and cadavers—into works that hold space for grief, memory, and rebirth. With a unique sensitivity to the ephemeral, Aparicio explores the body as both a site of loss and transformation, reimagining cycles of life and death through time-based materials. 

Aparicio’s work has been shown internationally at institutions including the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; DePaul Art Museum, Chicago; The Museum of Art and Design, NY; The International Museum of Surgical Science, Chicago; Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT; Can Mario Museum, Palafrugell, Spain; Kyoto International Craft Center, Japan; Instituto Cervantes, New York, NY; and Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona, Spain, among others. She completed a permanent public commission, At Rest, for the Beaufort 2024 Triennial in Belgium. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2025 Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Visual Arts, the 2023 Burke Prize from the Museum of Arts and Design, the 2022 Artadia Award, and the 3Arts Award/HMS Fund. 

Aparicio holds a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and an MFA in Sculpture from Yale University. She studied sculpture at Escola Massana in Barcelona and is currently Assistant Professor of Sculpture at Alfred University in Alfred, NY.