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Fritzia Irizar
Mexico, 1977

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.

Her work refers to the flow of money on an individual scale and to the consumption of the work of art.

Several of her projects have incorporated diamonds and salt, both crystals and similar in appearance, and both used as currency in different historical moments. Salt is prized for its food preserving properties, while diamonds have been valued only for the purity of their composition. The notions of these materials’ value are subject to the beliefs and fantasies, a complexity alluded to in her pieces.

Fritzia Irizar body of work recognizes that history and science are almost fictions, built on small surfaces of knowledge and subject to the decision of a few individuals. However, they are fictions that we want to hold: as acts of faith, of belonging, of will or certainty

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 value.

She has exhibited in several international institutions such as the MUAC, Museo Ex Teresa Arte Actual, Sala Siqueiros and Museo Rufino Tamayo in Mexico City, the Orange County Museum of Art in Santa Ana, CA2M (Centro de Arte 2 de Mayo) in Madrid, Headlands Center for the Arts in San Francisco, CIFO Fundación Fontanals Cisneros in Miami, Giorgio Cini Foundation in Venice, Seattle Art Museum in Seattle, Fundación Banco Santander in Madrid, Beirut Museum of Art (BeMA) in Beirut and the Rashid Karami International Fair in Tripoli. She has also participated in different biennials: the 9th and 10th Mercosur Biennial in Porto Alegre, the 12th FEMSA Biennial in Monterrey and the 14th Cuenca Biennial.

Her work can be found in collections such as JUMEX, Mexico; Isabel y Agustín Coppel Collection, Mexico; Servais Collection, Belgium; Colección Olor Visual, Spain; Braddock Collection, USA; Proyecto Bachué, Colombia; CIFO Collection, USA; Fondazione Benetton, Italy; and CA2M, Spain.

Fritzia Irizar
Untitled. Serie de dibujos de paisajes de la selva yucateca en peligro de extinción 3
2020-21
Ink made with ashes from burnt dollars on paper
56 x 76 cm

Fritzia Irizar
Untitled. Serie de dibujos de paisajes de la selva yucateca en peligro de extinción 12
2020-21
Ink made with ashes from burnt dollars on paper
56 x 76 cm

Fritzia Irizar
Untitled. Serie de dibujos de paisajes de la selva yucateca en peligro de extinción 5
2020-21
Ink made with ashes from burnt dollars on paper
56 x 76 cm

Fritzia Irizar. Chicxulub. NF/NIEVES FERNANDEZ. 2021

Fritzia Irizar
Untitled. Serie de dibujos de paisajes de la selva yucateca en peligro de extinción 2
2020-21
Ink made with ashes from burnt dollars on paper
56 x 76 cm

Fritzia Irizar
Untitled. Serie de dibujos de paisajes de la selva yucateca en peligro de extinción
2020-21
Ink made with ashes from burnt dollars on paper
56 x 76 cm

Fritzia Irizar. Chicxulub. NF/NIEVES FERNANDEZ. 2021

Fritzia Irizar
Untitled. Serie de dibujos de paisajes de la selva yucateca en peligro de extinción 9
2020-21
Ink made with ashes from burnt dollars on paper
56 x 76 cm

Fritzia Irizar
Untitled. Serie de dibujos de paisajes de la selva yucateca en peligro de extinción 7
2020-21
Ink made with ashes from burnt dollars on paper
56 x 76 cm

Fritzia Irizar. Chicxulub. NF/NIEVES FERNANDEZ. 2021

Fritzia Irizar
Untitled. Serie de dibujos de plantas en peligro de extinción
2021
Ink made with ashes from burnt dollars on paper
57 x 38 cm

Tamara Arroyo. Xcambó: Estados del agua. Fundación MARSO, Ciudad de México. 2025

Fritzia Irizar
Sin título (Makech)
2019
Live Beetle with Inlaid Gemstones and Metals
Video HD, 2’45”
Ed. 1 of 3 + AP

Fritzia Irizar
Sin título (Vanish) 1,2,3,4 & 5
2013
Installation. Five-channel color video
Ed. 1 of 5 + AP

Five archaeological objects appear and disappear due to a simple and quite evident cinematic editing trick.

Video link: https://vimeo.com/113357790/e75bb4d22d

Fritzia Irizar
Untitled (burnt dollars)
2017
Video
Ed. 2 of 3 + AP

In a previous action to the show, the artist burnt 1000 bills of 1 $ in a completely controlled, inexpressive process, recovering entirely the ashes, to build a pencil. This pencil was used by seven poets to write 7 poems on the business of war.
These poets were hired and paid according to the amount of ink used, and the poems were hand and individually written on paper recycled from one edition of The Wealth of Nations, by Adam Smith.
A group of objects, images and processes that recall the history of humanity, the value of ideas and cultural products, trying to reclaim the achievements of our civilization in a moment of our history when the feeling of loss is continuous.

Link to video: https://vimeo.com/218789006/e313909cbf

Fritzia Irizar
Untitled (Palimpsestos globales I)
2017
Ink on paper
7 x 35 cm

Fritzia Irizar
Untitled (Palimpsestos globales II)
2017
Ink on paper
7 x 35 cm

Fritzia Irizar
Untitled (Palimpsestos globales III)
2017
Ink on paper
7 x 35 cm

Fritzia Irizar
Untitled (Palimpsestos globales IX)
2017
Ink on paper
7 x 35 cm

Fritzia Irizar
Untitled (Palimpsestos globales V)
2017
Ink on paper
7 x 35 cm

Fritzia Irizar
Untitled (Palimpsestos globales VII)
2017
Ink on paper
7 x 35 cm

Fritzia Irizar
Untitled (Palimpsestos globales VIII)
2017
Ink on paper
7 x 35 cm

Fritzia Irizar
Untitled (4.81mm x 2.95mm, 43ct VS2, G)
2008
Chromogenic print
100 x 150 cm
Ed. 4 of 5 + 2 AP

A diamond, of the size and quality described in the title, is placed between the artist’s fingers; she carries out her everyday activities, keeping the gem between her thumb and index finger for 24 hours. A selection of four photos, taken to document different moments of the action, testifies to the process – and to the incision the diamond leaves in her hand.

Fritzia Irizar
Untitled (partituras conus)
2022
Digital photography
120 x 180 cm
Ed. 5 + AP

Exhibition Natura Non Facit, Galería Tiro al Blanco, Guadalajara, México, 2022

Fritzia Irizar
Untitled (ISO 4217) I, II, III, IV…
2017

Recycled paper and ink made with ashes from paper money

Poems about the business of war commissioned to different writers. Written with ink made from the ashes of burnt American dollars. Hand-made paper produced by using pages of the book “The Wealth of Nations” by Adam Smith.

Poets:
Oscar Paul Castro, Eduardo Ruiz, Alejandro Lee, Leonardo González, Fancisco Alcaraz

Fritzia Irizar
Untitled (ISO 4217) I
2017
Recycled paper and ink made with ashes from paper money
27,9 x 21,5 cm

Fritzia Irizar
Untitled (ISO 4217) II
2017
Recycled paper and ink made with ashes from paper money
27,9 x 21,5 cm

Fritzia Irizar
Untitled (ISO 4217) III
2017
Recycled paper and ink made with ashes from paper money
27,9 x 21,5 cm

Fritzia Irizar
Untitled (ISO 4217) IV
2017
Recycled paper and ink made with ashes from paper money
27,9 x 21,5 cm

Fritzia Irizar
Untitled (ISO 4217) V
2017
Recycled paper and ink made with ashes from paper money
27,9 x 21,5 cm

Fritzia Irizar. Rutas Relacionales. Galería Lucía Mendoza. 2024

Fritzia Irizar
Sacarosa
2015
Video. Color
4’19’’
Ed. 1 of 5 + AP

Fritzia Irizar
Untitled (lápiz)
2017
Pencil made from ashes of money
19 x 0,7 x 0,7 cm

Fritzia Irizar
Equilibrista
2017
Video. Color
1’19’’
Ed. 1 of 5 + AP

Fritzia Irizar
Sin título (Proyecto cuatro espejos). Capítulo 2_Sonorización del gesto
2018
Inkjet print
150 x 100 cm
Ed. 5 + AP

Fritzia Irizar. Chicxulub. NF/NIEVES FERNANDEZ. 2021

Fritzia Irizar
Proyecto cuatro espejos Cap. IV: Chicxulub
2018
Vídeo, color
Ed. 1 of 5 + AP

Fritzia Irizar
Sin título (Proyecto ‘Cuatro Espejos’) III
2018
Inkjet print
100 x 150 cm
Ed. 5 + AP

Fritzia Irizar at Art Brussels 2024. NF/NIEVES FERNANDEZ

Fritzia Irizar
Sin título (Proyecto ‘Cuatro Espejos’)
2018
Inkjet print
100 x 150 cm
Ed. 5 + AP

Fritzia Irizar
Sin título (Proyecto cuatro espejos). Capítulo 1_Gracia involuntaria
2018
Embroidered fabric, metal structure and engine
Variable dimensions
XIV Bienal de Cuenca: Estructuras Vivientes. El arte como experiencia plural, 2018. Installation views. Cuenca, Ecuador.

Project carried out for the Biennial of Cuenca in reference to the typical costume used by the Cuenca cholitas, which is composed of various elements and especially a skirt made with a large amount of dense fabric up to 12 meters in some styles. The pieces manage to generate a hypnotic and almost autonomous movement on the women’s body. Rather than evidencing the natural exotization of the foreigner who visits an unknown country, Fritzia conducts a study on almost invisible aspects of oppression and gender inequality, generally ignored in societies such as Latin America, in which equality is assumed as an instruction but not as a practice.

Inspired in ritualistic dances such as “Haka” from Polynesia and the “Dance of the Deer” in northern Mexico, this project voices the silent gesture of negotiation done by moving the head from one side to the other hence stressing the obvious or making the inaudible be heard.

Several women are asked to perform this gesture using a mask made from cocoons turned into rattles of – Four Mirrors- butterflies (are as known in Mexico)

The photographs work as an analogy between two facts. On one hand the Rotschildia butterfly that upon its metamorphosis loses it digestive system that hence provokes its ultimate death days after reaching its heightened state of beauty (becoming a butterfly) and the young women than perhaps because of their beauty are marked by stereotypes conditioned by our culture.

Fritzia Irizar
Sin título (Proyecto cuatro espejos). Capítulo 2_Sonorización del gesto
2018
Inkjet print
100 x 150 cm
Ed. 5 + AP

Fritzia Irizar. Chicxulub. NF/NIEVES FERNANDEZ. 2021

Fritzia Irizar
Sin título (Proyecto cuatro espejos). Capítulo 2_Sonorización del gesto
2018
HD video, color, sound
5’53”
Ed. 1 of 5 + AP

Fritzia Irizar
Sin título (Proyecto cuatro espejos). Capítulo 2_Sonorización del gesto
2018
Inkjet print
100 x 150 cm
Ed. 5 + AP

Silence and stillness have been the ways in which sentences are executed against victims of abuse. The law, literally, asks for a “No” of certain dimension for it to be interpretated to its full meaning. Inspired in ritualistic dances such as “Haka” from Polynesia and the “Dance of the Deer” in northern Mexico, this project voices the silent gesture of negotiation done by moving the head from one side to the other hence stressing the obvious or making the inaudible be heard. Several women are asked to perform this gesture using a mask made from cocoons turned into rattles of – Four Mirrors- butterflies (are as known in Mexico). The photographs work as an analogy between two facts. On one hand the Rotschildia butterfly that upon its metamorphosis loses it digestive system that hence provokes its ultimate death days after reaching its heightened state of beauty (becoming a butterfly) and the young women than perhaps because of their beauty are marked by stereotypes conditioned by our culture.

Untitled (The Disappearance of the Symbol)

2015
Fritzia Irizar

In Mexico, the Phrygian cap was used as a symbol since 1823 with the establishment of the Republic and until the first half of the twentieth century. A symbol of freedom regained from the French Revolution and, at the same time, from the ancient world; when the slaves from Phrygia (now Turkey) were liberated, they would put on this hat, whose name derives from that particular geographical area. Fritzia Irizar takes such a significant image in the history of Mexico as well as all the Republican Latin American countries in order to discuss the construction and disappearance of the political symbols in the collective imagination. In this work Untitled (the disappearance of the symbol), a weaving machine undoes the stitches of a gold threaded Phrygian cap, causing the total disappearance of the object. This action triggers a series of meanings about the ideological fabrication between politics, economy and society.

In America, the Phrygian cap was mainly used in numismatics and heraldry and it represents an allegorical statement of republican freedom imposed by the new Nation States. In this sense, this is the result of an interest that is not born on the social sphere but on the political sphere. The different emblems where the Phrygian cap appears, such as in Mexican coins, show a nation in political transition going from independence towards the constitution of the republic. Therefore, the geared sheaves (pulleys) used by the artist in her work, are understood as an apparatus that controls, manipulates and, at the same time, disappears the construction of symbols according to the political interests in turn. Moreover, the gold thread redefines the value of a symbol with a lost allegorical force. The Phrygian cap, never materialized before in the work of Irizar, is less of an iconographic study, it rather focuses on the possibility or impossibility of freedom. The absence of the object, sets the debate on democracy and the political machinery in motion behind the images and symbols that circulate through the repetition of history.

Fritzia Irizar. Mazatlanica. MUAC, Mexico. 2019

Fritzia Irizar
Sin título (La desaparición del símbolo, paisaje) 1 & 2
2016
Inkjet print
80 x 120 cm each. Diptych
Ed. 1 of 5 + AP

Through this series, Irizar takes a historical symbol of liberty and places it within overwhelming landscapes that she has visited throughout her career and that have forced her to re-think the meaning of symbols in general.

Fritzia Irizar
Untitled (Portrait of the Bourgeoisie)
2014
Photograph and confetti
100 x 150 cm
Ed. 3 of 3 + AP

Shows the process for the “Proyecto fachada” at the Sala de Arte Público Siqueiros (Siqueiros Public Art Hall), commissioned in 2014. The façade of the SAPS buildingSiqueiros’s1939 mural for the headquarters of the Sindicato Mexicano de Electricistas (Mexican Electrical Workers Union), entitled Retrato de la Burguesía [Portrait of the Bourgeoisie]-was printed to scale. The print was then shredded into pieces the size of confetti. The entire surface of the façade was covered in slow-drying glue. As an inaugural event, and in an environment marked by a festive air, paper-projecting cannons were set off-allowing the image of Siqueiros’s mural to be spontaneously reconstructed in tiny pieces across the front wall of the building.

Fritzia Irizar

Solo exhibitions

2025
Xcambó: estados del agua. Fundación MARSO, Mexico City

2021
Chicxulub. Estudios en un paisaje. NF/NIEVES FERNÁNDEZ, Madrid

2019
Mazatlanica. MUAC, Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City
CaCO3. Orange County Museum of Art (OCMA), Santa Ana, CA, USA

2016
La historia del humo. NF/NIEVES FERNÁNDEZ, Madrid
Golden Green – Greening Gold. Arredondo \ Arozarena, Mexico City
White Chameleon / HFCS. The Lab, San Francisco
Golden Green – Greening Gold. Headlands Center for the Arts, San Francisco

2015
Camaleón blanco JMAF. Museo de Arte de Zapopan, Zapopan, Mexico

2014
Prospección al Nuevo Territorio. Arredondo \ Arozarena, Mexico City
Obliteraciones. SAPS, Sala de Arte Público Siqueiros, Mexico City

2012
Naturaleza de Imitación. Arredondo \ Arozarena, Mexico City

2009
Ilusión y Decepción. Museo de la Ciudad, Querétaro, Mexico

2006
Fritzia Irizar. Garash Galería, Mexico City

Group exhibitions (selected)

2024
A stubborn and a hermit walk into a bar: Casa / Estudio Nancarrow. Mexico City

2022
Desde la herida. Bienal Sur, Centro Cultural Kirchner, Buenos Aires
Raíz y Rizoma. México en la Colección Otazu. Casa de México, Madrid

2021
Americas COVID 19 Memorial. Museo de las Américas, Denver
The two entrances of a mine. NF/NIEVES FERNÁNDEZ for Female Voices of Latin America, Vortic
#novoysola. Mexico City

2020
El animal herido. Museo Experimental el ECO, Mexico City

2018
XIV Bienal de Cuenca: Estructuras Vivientes. Cuenca
NO PLACE. Glinkastraße 17, Berlin
Cycles of Collapsing Progress. Beirut Museum of Art (BeMA), Tripoli, Lebanon

2017
Poéticas de lo cotidiano. Seattle Art Museum, Seattle
Punto de partida. Isabel and Agustín Coppel Collection, Sala de arte Santander, Madrid
Transformed: reclamation, re-invention + identity. Site 133, Texas

2016
XII Bienal FEMSA. Centro de las Artes, Monterrey
A la conquista del caucho. Arredondo/ Arozarena, Mexico City
¿Cómo te voy a olvidar?. Galerie Perrotin, Paris
Rastros y Vestigios. Museo de San Ildefonso, Mexico City

2015
10a Bienal do Mercosul. Porto Alegre
The Future is Unwritten. Giorgio Cini Foundation, Venice
APPROPIATION | Performance | Part 1. Michaela Stock Gallery, Vienna
Utopia is no place. NF/NIEVES FERNÁNDEZ, Madrid
Rastros y Vestigios. Instituto Cultural Cabañas, Guadalajara
Rumorosa: Sinuosidad visual y auditiva. Arredondo \ Arozarena, Mexico City
Estudio Abierto 5: Zea Mays. Museo de Arte de Zapopan, Mexico

2014
Bienal del Paisaje. Instituto Sonorense de Cultura, Hermosillo, Mexico

2013
9a Bienal do Mercosul. Porto Alegre
Bienal Online. Curated by Cuauhtémoc Medina
Comedores de Loto. Casa del Lago, Mexico City

2012
Zona Maco Sur 2012. Arredondo\ Arozarena, Mexico City
Programa Bancomer-MACG, Arte Actual. Museo Carrillo Gil, Mexico City
Primer Acto. Museo Rufino Tamayo, Mexico City

2011
Fetiches Críticos. Museo de la Ciudad de México
Arte y Política. Cecut, Tijuana
Viewpoint 2011. CIFO, Miami
ZonaMaco 2011. Arredondo \ Arozarena, Mexico City

2010
Arte y Política. Museo de Sinaloa, Mexico
Fetiches Críticos. CA2M, Madrid
Tangible. Arredondo \ Arozarena, Mexico City
Trayectorias aleatorias. Brussels

2009
El Resplandor. Salón Los Angeles, Mexico City

2008
Bolso Negro. Casa Vecina, Mexico City

2007
Stealing Time. Leubsdorf Art Gallery, New York
Creación en movimiento. CENART, Mexico City

2005
Jornadas de Puertas Abiertas. Casa de Velázquez, Madrid

2004
Invasión, ocupación, expansión. Centro Cultural España, Mexico City
El misterio del kilo de oro. Instituto de México, Paris

2002
Aktuelle Kunst Aus Mexico. Braunschweig, Germany
21/05/20. La Estación Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City
Despedida y Debut. Galería La Esmeralda, Mexico City
Lo Zoo. Museo Ex Teresa Arte Actual, Mexico City

2001
Sin título. MUCA-Roma, Mexico City

2000
1 metro cuadrado. Galería Alikarnassus, Monterrey
1. Galería de Arte Joven DIFOCUR, Culiacán

Collections

Colección Jumex, Mexico
Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo (CA2M), Spain
Colección Banco de España, Spain
Fondazione Benetton, Italy
Isabel and Agustín Coppel Collection, Mexico
Colección Olor Visual, Spain
Proyecto Bachué, Colombia
Servais Family Collection, Belgium
Braddock Collection, USA
CIFO, Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation Collection, USA

Awards and residencies

2021
Americas COVID 19 Memorial Award. Museo de las Américas, Denver
Residencias Charco. Cidade da Cultura, Santiago de Compostela

2016
Headlands Residency. Headlands Center For the Arts, San Francisco
International Residency Récollets, Centre International d’Accueil et d’Echanges des Récollets, Paris

2011
13th Northwest Biennial of Visual Arts Award, Museo de Arte de Sinaloa

2010
Arte Actual 2010-2012, Bancomer-Museo Carrillo Gil

2008
FOECA Established Artist Grant, Fondo Estatal para la Cultura y las Artes

2007, 2005
FONCA, Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes

2005
Casa Velázquez Residency, Madrid

2004
National Prize Antonio López Sáenz
State Visual Arts Photography Prize

2003
Unión Latina Young Creators Award

2002, 1999
FOECA Young Creators Grant, Fondo Estatal para la Cultura y las Artes

1996
Guest Artist, Kalamazoo Institute Of Arts