Itziar Okariz

Itziar Okariz was born in San Sebastián and studied painting and sculpture at the Universidad del País Vasco.

Her work is usually based on photographs or film installations and performance, in forms inspired by the Situationists. She is often identified as a feminist artist, although she does not like the label because it contextualizes her work too narrowly.[1] According to Javier Hontoria of Artforum, she "has always focused on a performativity that also examines the ties between landscape and architecture, sign and ritual, or sexuality and territory. In her quest to render the self, her practice took a turn to the verbal over the spatial, privileging language over the body... Much of Okariz's practice is built upon small linguistic units and signs that produce meaning through emphatic reiteration."[2]

She has exhibited works in many countries in Europe and in the United States.

Selection of work

• Faces (video installation, 1999)
• Publication Itziar Okariz (Vitoria-Gasteiz : Servicio Central de Publicaciones del Gobierno Vasco, 2001)
• Mear en espacios públicos o privados / Peeing in Public or Private Spaces
• Trepar edificios
• "Irrintzi" (Exhibition Chacun à son goût, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, 2007)

• 1995: 1st prize in Gure Artea of the Basque Country
• 1993: 3rd prize in the Certamen de Artistas Noveles in San Sebastian