“Heavy Metal,” the fifth installment in NMWA’s Women to Watch exhibition series, showcases contemporary artists working in metal, and includes works by Spanish sculptor Blanca Muñoz.

Featured artists in Heavy Metal investigate the physical properties and expressive possibilities of metalwork through a wide variety of objects, including sculpture, jewelry, and conceptual forms. Works in the exhibition range from large-scale installations to small objects intended for personal adornment; these disparate works are fashioned out of iron, steel, bronze, silver, gold, brass, tin, aluminum, copper, and pewter. This exhibition seeks to disrupt the predominantly masculine narrative that surrounds metalworking and demonstrate that contemporary women artists carry on a vibrant legacy in the field.

The exhibition features works by Cheryl Eve Acosta (Greater Kansas City Area), Rana Begum (United Kingdom), Carolina Rieckhof Brommer (Peru), Lola Brooks (Georgia), Paula Castillo (New Mexico), Charlotte Charbonnel (France), Venetia Dale (Massachusetts), Petronella Eriksson (Sweden), Susie Ganch (Mid-Atlantic Region), Alice Hope (Greater New York Region), Leila Khoury (Ohio), Holly Laws (Arkansas), Blanca Muñoz (Spain), Beverly Penn (Texas), Serena Porrati (Italy), Alejandra Prieto (Chile), Kerianne Quick (Southern California), Carolina Sardi (Florida), Katherine Vetne (Northern California), and Kelsey Wishik (Mississippi).

Blanca Muñoz born in Madrid in 1963, Blanca Muñoz began her artistic career as a printmaker and won many prizes and grants based on her work in this field. Her interest in sculpture began through her search for volume and three-dimensionality within her graphic work. After spending sometime working in Mexico in 1993, the importance of the experience of space and light in Mexico dawned on her and she began to take an interest in light and cosmology which are refelcted in her sculptural works.

Her work is represented in many museums and public collections, including Academia Española de Historia, Arqueología y Bellas Artes, Rome; Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid; Calcografía Nacional – Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, Madrid; City Council of Pamplona, Spain; Colección Caja de Burgos, Burgos, Spain; Fundación Bancaja, Valencia; Fundación Bilbao-Arte, Bilbao; Museo de L’Almodi, Valencia; Museo de Bellas Artes de Álava, Vitoria, Spain; Museo del Cabildo Insular de la Palma, Canary Islands; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid; and Museo Würth, La Rioja, Spain and Kunzelsau, Germany.

Muñoz’ large-scale sculpture can be found in numerous public locations in Spain. In addition to her work at Torre Caja Madrid by Norman Foster, her scuplture is installed at Parque de la Curva de Elorrieta in Bilbao; Plaza del Siglo, in the historic center of Málaga; Palacio de Congresos, Badajoz; and Estación de Príncipe Pío, Madrid. (spainculture press-release)