Biography

Lucía Vergel is a sculptor and performance artist originally from Peru. Before immigrating to Canada, she worked as a journalist for several years. She earned a BFA in Sculpture from Concordia University and received the Yves Gaucher Prize in Studio Arts in 2018. Her sculptures and performances, often dealing with ideas of suffocation, fragmentation and fragility, have been presented at the festival and galleries in Montreal including What the Pop! 2021, Eastern Bloc, Atelier Galerie 2112, Mainline Gallery and Artgang Gallery. In addition, her performance “Why? Where? […]” was featured in the publication “Spirale Hors-Série N°2: Femmes et violence de masse” in 2018, guest-edited by Nadia Myre and Jean-Philippe Uzel, as part of the Topographies of Mass Violence project.

Approach and works on display

In her work, Lucía Vergel endeavours to express a repressed emotion, a denial and a buried feeling that are deeply rooted in her personal experience as a woman, as a Latina, as a granddaughter of Chinese immigrants in Peru and as an immigrant in Canada. Her sculptures involve meticulous process and an exploration of materials with certain visual and tactile qualities, while her performances are more intuitive. Vergel combines these two art forms in her work by interacting with objects, humanizing them as well as transforming them as an extension of her mind and body. Although these objects stay still and silent, they echo her thoughts and emotions as if a whisper waiting to be heard.

What your eyes [don’t] see (2021)

What your eyes [don’t] see is a reflection on Vergel’s personal process of adapting to Canadian society. In this performance – her inner journey and path of rediscovery, Vergel interacts with cultural objects linked to her native country and her identity. Her action is centered around a traditional Peruvian retablo, initially covered with white fabrics and held by ropes. She identifies herself, feeling restricted by fears and uncertainty, with the retablo as it stands alone trying to stay unnoticed. Gradually revealing the retablo and its contents inside, Vergel raises questions about perceptions: the way she sees herself and her world, and the way others see her and their world, and how one’s own action is determined by such consciousness.

Works by the artist