Fritzia Irizar

Fritzia Irizar’s conceptual artworks test the elusive forces of value as it is expressed in economic and symbolic forms including labor, precious materials, money, and myths. Several of her projects have incorporated diamonds and salt–both crystals and similar in appearance, salt is prized for its food preserving properties and was historically used as hard currency. By contrast, diamonds have been valued only for the purity of their appearance. The notions of these materials' value are subject to the beliefs and fantasies, a complexity alluded to in pieces such as Sin título (Fe de azar) (2010) where the artist hid a real diamond worth at least a thousand dollars in a mound of salt and during the exhibition dates, 333 sealed sacks of salt weighing 3 kilos each were put on sale–the diamond could be found in any of these sacks. Addressing paper currency directly, Sin título (Pared) (2004) was a work commissioned by the Centro Cultural de España in Mexico, in which the production budget was entirely converted into American dollars. The bills were subsequently affixed, by the center's own workers, on one of the gallery walls and covered with plaster and white paint in order to restore the surface to its original appearance, the money permanently buried underneath. Taken out of its typical environments, the currency Irizar uses in her works takes on symbolic qualities that speak to the construction of desire and worth.

She has had solo exhibitions at Museo de Arte de Zapopan, Sala de Arte Público Siqueiros in Mexico City, and Museo de la Ciudad in Querétaro, among other venues. Her work has been included in group exhibitions at institutions such as Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo in Mexico City, Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil in Mexico City, and Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation in Miami.

Courtesy of Arredondo \ Arozarena