Biography
Mahia Biblos was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and naturalized as a citizen of Mexico after her arrival to this country in 1972. During the last 40 years, her artistic production has been conceived as a sculptural exploration of textile techniques. Accumulating several solo shows and more than 90 collective exhibitions, her work has been shown and collected internationally. In 2011, she was honored as special guest during the VI International Biennial of Contemporary Textile Art of Mexico. Recent projects include Quiebres exhibited in Art to the Vent VIII. International Exhibition of Textile Art (Gata de Gorgos, Alicante, Spain, 2013) and Aires Goyescos presented as a part of the section Generations of the abovementioned Biennial of Contemporary Textile Art of Mexico.
Mahia Biblos has developed a sociological interest in a variety of Mexican aesthetic traditions. By appropriating everyday fabrics and objects, her work confers a different meaning to traditional crafts such as tapestry and upholstery. During her career, she has also created diverse installations and public sculptures. In collaboration with architect Mario Schjetnan, she produced Tribute to the Sierra Madre Occidental, an installation located in the main square of the Corporate Center The Towers (Monterrey, Mexico, 1999).
As an artist and educator, her philosophy can be easily divided into two different facets. On the one hand, her teaching emerges from a rigorous and updated theoretical and pedagogical framework, from which she develops courses on a variety of topics such as color, composition, textile production, textile experimentation, and design. On the other, her creative production focuses on the interplays between harmonic and dissonant chromatic relations. Taking advantage of the fact that fabrics offer an intense optical vibration, her artistic research elaborates on the interaction between color and space.
Her most recent projects deal with the sociological impact of a major problem, fully visible in our contemporary society: the experience of violence as a cultural phenomenon. Among her current projects, she has been working on two different outdoors monumental installations, Corredor Cultural Chihuahua (Mexico City) and Torre Símbolo (Cuautitlán Izcalli), not yet produced because of budgetary issues.
In 1996, Mahia Biblos launched the Centro Juan Acha de Investigación Sociológica en Arte Latinoamericano, a research initiative devoted to the study and preservation of the legacy of this important theoretician. Since 2008, she is honorary director of Proyecto Juan Acha, an initiative affiliated with the Centro Cultural Universitario de Tlatelolco (UNAM, Mexico).
