Ava Grauls
b.1982 South Africa / Belgium
Conceptual artist based in London.
Grauls’ multidisciplinary practice explores the politics of place, memory, and national legitimacy. Informed by multiple migrations, her work is a visual exploration of the "schizophrenic moment" felt by the forever immigrant, where personal memory clashes with official documented histories.
Her practice is founded on a rigorous research into cartography and geopolitical formations. She deconstruct the conventional authority of maps, viewing them not as documents of immutable truth, but as documents of invasion and vested interest. Through expressive, layered painting, Grauls’ translate these structures of power into an ambiguous, emotional visual language, interrogating the legitimacy of an identity borne out of nationalism.