Fine Art nominee

The word synapse is a neologism introduced by British physician and physiologist Michael Foster derived from the Greek word synapteína formed by syn-and haptein-unite together. The synapse is a chemical process that causes electrical discharge currents, causing the connection between neurons.

It is a microcellular phenomenon similar to lightning. The light flash that we see in the sky is the result of an electric shock from the meeting of two streams of energy; a negative current of ice particles that go down from the clouds and a positive flow of evaporated water that rises from the earth. The union of the two currents is what makes the visible flash of lightning.

But, the synapse that I really reference in this project is a mystical synapses, in which light rays are manifested to the heart, inward eye, visionary person, driving it into withdrawal, the rapture or ecstasy.

Mapi Rivera was born in Huesca (Spain) the autumn of 1976. She studied Fine Arts at the University of Barcelona and extensive studies at the Saint Martins University of London. She has been awarded the Advanced Studies Diploma for having completed the “Art and Thought” doctoral programme. She has a doctorate with thesis “The numinous sense of light“.

From the beginning, drawing, poetry, photography and video are her usual media of expression. In her corpus of artistic creation, it is always appreciated the search for balance between the immanent and transcendent and the recognition of spirituality as something inherent to human being. The naked body becomes a symbol of intermediate place, a meeting between two worlds, and recovers his original sense of purity and essentiality.

Her work has been shown through more than 150 solo and collective exhibitions and conferences, in Institutions, Museums, Art Galleries. She has also participated in art fairs as Estampa '09, Madrid, "Art.Fair" '06, Cologne, "St.Art" '06, Strasbourg, "Arco" '00, '01, '02, 04, '07, Madrid and in Photo Spain '02, Madrid. He has also been awarded 21 different Grants and Prizes.