VICTORIA AHRENS

Education

2011-17  PHD in Photography Practice/ Theory (AHRC studentship award), Birkbeck College, UL
2011-13  MA Printmaking (Distinction), Camberwell College of Art, UAL
2008-10  MA Art History/Contemporary Theory (Distinction), Birkbeck College, UL
2006-7   PGCE (PCET) for Art and Design, Greenwich Maritime University
2003-6   BA Fine Art, Central St. Martins, University of the Arts London
2002-3   Foundation Diploma in Art and Design, Camberwell College of Art, UAL

Awards

  • 2022 Four Acres Commission Acrylize
  • 2022 PADA residency July-August, Lisbon
  • 2021 Peltz Gallery video commission award
  • 2021 shortlisted for Glover Raynor Photography Prize
  • 2020 Installation award, WCPF
  • 2019 Residency Award, Gate 44, Milan
  • 2018 Via Arts Prize (finalist)
  • 2016 Arte Laguna Prize (finalist)
  • 2015 National Museum of Art Beijing Collection
  • 2014  Neo:Print Prize finalist
  • 2013 Clifford Chance Purchase Prize
  • 2013 Printmakers Council Award
  • 2013 Celeste Photography Prize
  • 2010 Shortlisted for Association of Art Historians Writing Prize
EXHIBITIONS (Group and Solo)
SOLO/ TWO PERSON SHOWS
  • Inclined/ On the Slide, solo show, Impact 12, UWE, Centre for Fine Print Research, Sept 21-25 2022
  • Parts Unknown: Ground Truths, solo show, Enter Artspace, Aarhus, Denmark – 6th March-  20th April 2020
  • Biennale de l’Image Tangible, two artist exhibition  Laure Tiberghien and Victoria Ahrens, bit20.parisParis, Nov-Dec 2018 http://bit20.paris/galeriejulio
  • IMPACT 10- Encuentros, two artist exhibition with Altea Grau, and conference paper, Santander, Spain, 1-9th of September 2018
  • What Lies Beneath/ ABSORB, Peltz Room Gallery, solo show, 43 Gordon Square, Bloomsbury, London PHD exhibition 2016
  • Under and Below, solo show at Peltz Gallery, Birkbeck School of Art, London 2015
FORTHCOMING Shows 2023
  • Natural Proximity, with Geographies of Print, at La Ciotat, France 8 November- 10 December 2023
  • Residency at West Cork Arts Centre, Skibbereen, Ireland June 20-July 20
  • Film 2023, LCB Depot, Leicester, as part of Format Festival 23 11-31st May 2023
  • Beyond Silver, The Hive, Birmingham, curated by the London Alternative Photography Collective 18 Jan-3rd Feb
2021-2022
  • She Speaks Up! curated and organised by Sharon Young, 228 Chingford Mount Road, London
  • Natural Proximity at Impact 12, UWE Bristol, solo show and Geographies of Print show, Panel discussion 21-25.09
  • PADA residency, Barreiro, Lisbon 1 July-31st August 2022
  • M2 Gallery, Peckham, London 30.04-12.06
  • Ecologies, GRIS MEDIO, contemporary photography exhibition and talks -keynote speaker, University of San Fransisco Quito, and Q Gallery, Ecuador 18-25.04
  • Withheld, curated by Rosie Zielinski at Safehouse 2 in Copeland Park, Peckham, London  30.03-03.04
  • Carbon. Borders. Voices, online exhibition carbon-borders.voices.com  and IRL, launches 24.01.22
  • Thinking of Place_iii, Sympoeisis, curated by Sumi Perera, NorthSite Contemporary Arts, Cairns, Queensland, Australia  February 2021, Forma Gallery,  Buenos Aires, Argentina Nov 2022
  • Sanford Vitrine, New Cross, London-curated by Estefi Araujo and Natalia Janula
  • On Media, Signals and Connections, LoosenArt Collection Gallery, 23rd-8th December, Rome Italy
  • Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair– installation award, Woolwich, London
  • Without Horizon, Without Shore, Geographies of Print, at The Stone Space Gallery, East London, October 2021
  • Royal Academy Summer Show, room V curated by Emma Stibbon
  • Without Horizon, Without Shore at Lambeth Courthouse, Kennington, London with Geographies of Print, 8-26 September 2021
  • Noli Mi Tangere, video commission for the Peltz Gallery, Birkbeck, Bloomsbury, London-live streaming, talks and panel discussion, launch 23rd September 2021
  • I Didn’t Lick it, Bruton Museum, and other venues, Bruton Correspondence School, Somerset, 24 July- 25 September, 2021
  • Salon/21 , Glover Raynor Photography Prize, at Photofusion Photography Centre, Brixton, London  13th July
  • What on Earth, The Koppel Project, London 1-24 July 2021
  • Here and There, Window Room/ Parkhaus 15, Philadelphia and Orlando, May 22nd 2021
2019-2020
  • Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair Online edition, Nov-Dec 2020
  • Touch Me curated by Veronika Neukirch- Sept 2020 online at: http://www.veronikaneukirch.com/touch-me
  • False Memories, Rugby Art Gallery and Museum, Rugby 6 August-14 November 2020
  • Radical Ventriloquism curated by Lee Campbell, Kelder Projects, London 13th March-19th April 2020
  • Parts Unknown: Ground Truths (solo show) Enter Artspace, Aarhus, Denmark – 6th March-  20th April 2020
  • Conditions, 89 Gloucester Road, Studio programme show London- Jan 2020
  • Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair, London-7-10th November 2019
  • PrintmEking, Gate44, Milano, Italy – December 2019 (postponed)
  • Tierras Aridas, Jaen Museum of Art, Spain May- July 2019, Oaxaca, Mexico and Phoenix, Arizona
  • Another Land, Kingston Museum and Stanley Picker Gallery, Kingston, April 4th- June 29th 2019
  • Sixty Years: Women’s Art in the Clifford Chance Art Collection, London, February 18th- 7th June 2019
  • Interruptions: Disruptive discourses in Screen, Sound and Photography, Research Fortnight, LCC 7th March 2019 (Curated by Victoria Ahrens: talks, performance, discussions)
2017-2018
  • Salon 18, Photofusion, London
  • VIA Art Prize, Brazilian Embassy and Association of Cultural Attachés of Latin America, Spain and Portugal, in partnership with Itaú BBA and People’s Palace Projects, London
  • Biennale de l’Image Tangible,  Laure Tiberghien and Victoria Ahrens, bit20.parisParis, Nov-Dec 2018 http://bit20.paris/galeriejulio
  • Tierras Aridas, Centro Cultural La Nau, Universitat Politecnica de Valencia 26th October- 18 November
  • Ar(t)chaeology: Intersection between Art and Archaeology, International Association of Photography and Theory, NiMAC, Cyprus, October 2017-November 2018
  • New Visions in Printmaking, Chelsea Triangle Space, London 12-26th October 2018
  • IMPACT 10- Encuentros, two artist exhibition with Altea Grau, and conference paper, Santander, Spain, 1-9th of September 2018
  • Douro Print Biennial, Alijó, Portugal 10th August- 31 October 2018
  • Royal Academy Summer Show, London 12th June- 19th August 2018
  • Bainbridge Open 2018, An Exhibition of Contemporary Print, ASC Gallery, London 9-15 June 2018
  • Wonderer, Athens School of Fine Art, curated by Fronteer Art, Platforms Project
  • Good Studios presents: Victoria Ahrens, Joanna Brinton, Katherine Eves, Copeland Park, Peckham, London, to coincide with Peckham 24 and Photo London
  • Artificial Things, ARB Cambridge University and Shutter Hub, Cambridge
  • Salon 17 Photofusion, London 8 December- 13 January 2018
  • In Conversation, Printmaking Today, Winter edition, December 2017
  • Buy Art Fair (10th Anniversary), Manchester
  • Making It Real: Analogue LDN at Ugly Duck, London Alternative Photography Collective, London
  • Burning with Pleasure 3, at Seen Fifteen Gallery and Photofusion, London
  • Original Prints, Zillah Bell Gallery, Yorkshire curated by Norman Ackroyd CBE RA,
  • Royal Academy Summer Show 2017, London
  • Transformations and Collaborations, Instagram takeover, Moose on the Loose Research Biennale, PARC (Photography and Archive Research Centre), London
  • Le Coq Artiste, Q Park, curated by Jude Cowan Montague and Matt Armstrong
2015- 2016
  • What Lies Beneath, Peltz Room Gallery, solo show, 43 Gordon Square, Bloomsbury, London PHD exhibition
  • Royal Academy Summer Show 2016, London selected by Stephen Chambers
  • Arte Laguna Prize, Arsenale, Venice, 2016
  • Contemporary Printmaking in the UK at Times Art Museum, Beijing ,  touring to Shanghai and Changsha, China 2016
  •  Intersecting Practice of Contemporary Printmaking in UK, IMPACT 9, China Academy of Art,  Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
  • WAC Prize, at Wells Museum, Somerset, selected by Richard Wentworth, Mariele Neudecker, and Donald Smith, 9th October- 23rd of October 2015
  • Longlisted for Anthology 2015, Charlie Smith Gallery, London 2015
  • Under and Below, solo show at Peltz Gallery, Birkbeck School of Art, London
  • Form/ Fragment, West Yorkshire Print Workshop Gallery, Yorkshire
2012-2014
  • Micro Residency, Rio Carapachay, Tigre, Buenos Aires, Argentina- AHRC funded research project and exhibition on the Parana Delta
  • Liminal Dialogues: Landscape at the edges of memory and nostalgia, at Wimbeldon College of Art and Stockholm’s Kulturama College, Sweden
  • Of the Earth at Plymouth Arts University. Speaker at Conference on art, design, writing and the environment in conjunction with WALK ON exhibition at Peninsular Gallery, Plymouth
  • NEO: Print Prize 2014 at Gallery 22, Market Square, Bolton
  • Publish/Curate at TJ Boulting Gallery, 59 Riding House Street, London
  • Corporeal Witnessing: the Portrait as Flesh, in The Skin of the Image, Photography and the Contemporary Imaginary Research Hub Symposium, LCC London
  • Honoré Project, Balzac’s Print Rooms, rue de Visconti, Paris, curated by Alix Janta, Aaron Morel (Morel Books), TJ Boulting Gallery and Trolley Books
  • Bainbridge Open 2014,  Embassy Tea Gallery, London
  • Shortlisted for Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2014
  • Print Dialogues, solo show at Peltz Gallery, School of Art, Birkbeck College London
  • Freshly Pressed, Printmakers Council at Craft Central, Farringdon, London
  • MAs and other Postgraduate 2014 Exhibition, Atkinson Gallery, Millfield, Somerset
  • 156th International Print Exhibition, The Royal Photographic Society, Museum of Somerset, Taunton Castle, Somerset
  • W-CA Contemporary Landscape Photography, at Worcester City Gallery and Museum, selected by Paul Seawright, Dan Holdsworth, Richard Billingham, Pete James, Jem Southam and Ivan & Heather Morison and Fiona Crisp
  • S.I.T.E, Chelsea Triangle and the Cookhouse,London
  • Clifford Chance Purchase Prize, Clifford Chance Gallery, London (Clifford Chance Purchase  1st Prize Winner)
  • Pushing Print at the Pie Factory, Margate Gallery as part of the Festival of Print
  • Shortlisted for Contemporary Visions IV at Beers/Lambert Gallery
  • MA Printmaking Final Show at Camberwell College of Art, UAL, London-Printmakers Council Award (Distinction)
  • 156th International Print Exhibition, The Royal Photographic Society, Stafford, The Civic, Barnsley, and the Michael Heseltine Gallery, Banbury, Oxfordshire
  • The London Group Centenary Exhibition – Part 2 at The Cello Factory, Waterloo, London
  • Proof at Brixton East curated by Victoria Ahrens, Gill Smith and organized by Janie Kidston
  • Bainbridge Print Open at The Embassy Tea Gallery, London
  • Lapsus, Celeste Art Prize 2013, curated by Marinella Paderni at Fondazione Studio Marangoni, Florence, Italy, selected by Elena Ceratti, Martin Breindl and Silvio Wolf (1st Prize winner)
  • “THOTS” AND, as part of 1234 (A5) …One Year of Drawings, (invited contributor)  Neil Ferguson at Mile End Pavillion, London
  • The Day Remains_ii, Peltz Room Gallery, Birkbeck, London. Exhibition of 8 artists’ work curated and organized by Victoria Ahrens referencing the fragment, including workshop events, talks as part of Arts Week
  • The Day Remains_ii, at the Peltz Room Gallery, Birkbeck School of Art, 43 Gordon Square, London, solo curating project
  • The Day Remains, 23 Grafton Road Gallery, London, curated by Victoria Ahrens and organised by Chelly Saenz
  • Future Outlook of Printmaking, Gallery Fleur, Kyoto, Japan
  • 0.34 miles (0.57 km), Printmaking and Book Arts at Wilson’s Road, CCW, London
  • EMIT, at New Gallery, London, Contemporary Printmaking curated by Victoria Ahrens and  Misa Gott
  • Hung, Drawn and Altered, I and II, at Karin Jannsen Project Space, Hackney and the Copeland Industrial Estate, Peckham,  curated by Victoria Ahrens and Giuseppina Esposito
  • Proof at Brixton East-Interim show for Camberwell MA Printmaking and Book Arts, curated with Gill Smith and organized by Janie Kidston

______________________________

 Curating projects as part of Baylors&Diamond with Giuseppina Esposito (a curatorial partnership to curate international artists in London)

2011–2012
  • FILTER , Unit 9F Vanguard Court, Peckam Road: Victoria Ahrens, Giuseppina Esposito, Gaia Persico, Andre Penteado, Kim Thornton, Gabriella Sancisi
  • Hung, Drawn and Altered I: Drawn In, Karin Jannsen Project Space,     Hackney, London: Abbi Torrance, Patric Sandri, Gaia Persico, Jools Johnson, Elisa Sighicelli
  • Hung, Drawn and Altered II: Protention, Unit 9, Copeland Industrial Park, PeckhamRye: Max Ruf and Michael Strasser, with a performance by Cie. Agar Agar
Talks/Publications
  • Keynote Speaker: Photography as a site of ecological resistance, Gris Medio, Ecologias, 3rd edition, USFQ, Conference and Festival of Photography, 2022, Ecuador
  • IMPACT 12 conference paper: Violence in the embodied Landscape, Sept 2022
  • Carbon. Borders. Voices, invited artist talk, opening night and launch of the curated exhibition online, www.carbon-borders-voices.com, 2022
  • Launch event for Peltz gallery Commission (video) and In Conversation with Aikaterini Gegisian, November 2021-March 22 2022-https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2Fy-5oxIlb69vAt_HcyLYON_sKo-h5Om
  • Launch of geographies_of_print, pecha kucha talks, June 2021
  • Diary of a Printmaker, Printmaking Today, Winter Issue 2021
  • Technologies of the Self, invited talk online for MA fine art show at APT gallery, Deptford 2021
  • Pecha Kucha Talk for Photofusion salon and Glover Raynor prize 2021, Brixton, London
  • A True Date with a Palm Tree– visual essay, published in Vista  Journal #5 2019
  • Laure Tiberghien and Victoria Ahrens: la photographie comme image tangible, Le Corridor de l’Art by Pauline Lisowski: https://www.lecorridordelart.com/2018/11/laure-tiberghien-et-victoria-ahrens-la-photographie-comme-image-tangible
  • The Perfect Place, conference paper for Why Remember? Remains, Ruins, Reconstructions,  Sarajevo,WARM Festival 2018, https://whyremember2018.wordpress.com/
  • The Forensic Turn in Contemporary Printmaking, IMPACT 10, Santander 2018, https://www.impact10.es/bios/s-t-u-v-w-y-z/victoria-ahrens/
  • In Conversation, Printmaking Today, Winter edition, December 2017, http://www.cellopress.co.uk/bundle/printmaking-today-volume-26-2017
  • Bodies of Water: Photographic Encounters of Resistance, Memory and Ruin in the River Paraná, PHD, Birkbeck College, University of London, 2017, at the British Library
  • Contemporary Photography, Bare Hill Publishing, June 2014
  • Corporeal Witnessing: the Portrait as Flesh, in The Skin of the Image, Photography and the Contemporary Imaginary Research Hub Symposium, 5th June 2014 2:00- 6:00 pm, LCC Podium Lecture Theatre
  • Of the Earth, Plymouth – Art, Photography and the Environment, Plymouth University- October 2014 https://tsoeg.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/of_the_earth_conference.pdf
  • Panel discussion with Professor Paul Coldwell, Dr. Patrizia di Bello and Dr. Gabriel Koureas as part of Print Dialogues, Birkbeck College, University of London
  • Perfect Purchase in Printmaking Today, Spring 2014
  • Out of the Ruins-performance, publication and projection for IN-Folds event at Camberwell College of Art, London
  • The Fragment. the Ruin and Memory– panel discussion, publication at Birkbeck School of Art as part of The Day Remains_ii and Arts Week (together with Altea Grau Vidal and Victoria Arney)
  • Memorialization in the Ruins: Narratives of archeology and disappearance in the Southern Cone, Birkbeck College, University of London (2012)
  • From the Ruins of the Sublime, the resurgence of the sublime in contemporary art, Camberwell, UAL (2012)
  • The Politics of the Image, contextual studies lecture at various UAL sites
  • A Room with a Hue, Becky Fallowfield editor and designer, book about artists and their studios, LCC publishing (2010)
  • Argentina’s Absolute Witness: the role of DNA, Testimony and Photographs at Argentina’s ex-detention centre ESMA, Birkbeck University, shortlisted for Association of Art Historians Prize (2010)
Work

2013- present

  • 2020- present Contextual practice Lecturer MA Photography LCC
  • 2019  Dissertation supervisor on BA Photography at LCC
  • 2018- present Senior Lecturer on Graduate Diploma Photography and Documentary Practice course at LCC, UAL
  • 2018- present Coordinator and Senior Lecturer in Academic Support  for BA Fine Art /Design courses across Camberwell College of Art
  • 2014- 2018 LCC Academic Support Tutor for all BA and MA Photography and Photojournalism courses
  • 2014- present Tutor and visiting artist on MA Printmaking, Camberwell College of Art and Brighton University BA Printmaking course