The French television FR3 showed a 7 minute documentary on me in their Magazine on Sunday 4th October!
Découvrez Zoé Bray, de l'anthropologie à l'art du portrait sur Culturebox !
Every two months or so, I write an article on something to do with the arts for the Florence Academy of Art. My latest article is about the exhibition currently on at London's National Gallery on 17th century Spanish polychromae sculpture, interviewing the curator, who happens to be my elder brother Xavier.
13 September 2009. I interrupt my week long project painting French Basque sculptor Piarres Erdozaintzi to travel back to Italy where I shall continue working on other projects till December 2009. These past days spent with Piarres have been magical and I look forwards to immersing myself back into work on the portrait as soon as possible next year..In the photo, one can see I set up the far-from-finished-painting on the first floor of our house in Ostabat with south light streaming in from the balcony. This photo reminds me of Velasquez' Las Meninas when the king and queen look onto the scene together with an unidentified (as far as I know) person in the stairway looking in! In this case it is my mother painter Josette Dacosta and her brother, playwright Bernard Dacosta, whom I snapped perchance as they were going downstairs..
August 2009. I complete my series of charcoal portraits of Iparraldeko bertsolariak (French Basque improvised singers). An exhibition will be organised in 2010 with the association of bertsolaris, the Iparraldeko Bertsolarien Lagunak Elkartea, in the house of Andoni Iturrioz, Larraldea, in Sempere.
August 2009. Ioanna and Amaia Oyhamburu pose for me at home in Ostabat, Basque Country. There's not much room to march back and forth to the easel, so I sit down and rock my chair back and forth!
Portrait duel, 31 July. Cuban painter Sylvia Haydee and I set up our canvases facing each other to paint eachother's portrait. The process was filmed by Juan Pablo Zabala in his house in Hondarribia. Photos to be posted soon.
15 to 19 July, Errobiko Festibala, Itsasu. I will be exhibiting some paintings in this very special festival taking place on the banks of the river Errobi in the French Basque Country, together with two other locally renowned artists, Josette Dacosta and Lola Saratea.
All of July and August - land art installation in the collective summer exhibition of Haize Berri, the cultural centre of the French Basque village Izura. The Celtic images which one can see across the hills of England are the source of inspiration for my work here. But while those were made with chalk, mine is made with local newspapers laid on the grass and held down with wooden pickets no longer used by the local farmer. Curious pilgrims and local inhabitants watched and animated me as I went about creating my happy dancer.
1 July 2009 - I give an experimental course in portrait sculpture to Master students in Ingenierie de Projets at the Ecole Superieure des Technologies Industrielles Avancees, in Bidart, Basque Country.
The idea is to explore their artistic creativity in first-time sculpture-making and thus reflect on their personal approach in their other professional (and life) projects.
I encourage them to first look at the model from a point of view as objective as possible, stand back, look at the object from all sides, use the mirror (a device used by Da Vinci amongst others to refresh the eye), touching, pausing and observing. After an initial phase spent doing this, understanding the bigger picture, are the students encouraged to zoom in and embark finally on a more subjective and personal approach.
The idea is to explore their artistic creativity in first-time sculpture-making and thus reflect on their personal approach in their other professional (and life) projects.
I encourage them to first look at the model from a point of view as objective as possible, stand back, look at the object from all sides, use the mirror (a device used by Da Vinci amongst others to refresh the eye), touching, pausing and observing. After an initial phase spent doing this, understanding the bigger picture, are the students encouraged to zoom in and embark finally on a more subjective and personal approach.
Totally by surprise, on the internet I came upon a poem inspired by a painting I produced some years ago for Jacques Battesti.
9 to 23 June - ''Art in process: Looking through the eye of the photographer and the painter"
, at the European University Institute, Florence.
I exhibit together with photographer Niccolo Tognarini. While I painted friends and familiar objects in the palazzo Bargellini, Niccolo took photos of the process.
, at the European University Institute, Florence.I exhibit together with photographer Niccolo Tognarini. While I painted friends and familiar objects in the palazzo Bargellini, Niccolo took photos of the process.
June 5 - Graduation ceremony of the Florence Academy of Art, I receive the Tintori Family Scholarship to pursue my apprenticeship in realist painting.
June 2009: For my latest article published in the arts, this time on the experience of modelling, see here.
May 2009: My charcoal nude portrait 'Bizia aurrean' is exhibited at the Salon des Independants of Saint Jean de Luz, Villa Ducontenia.
April - May: I paint Miriam Aziz, singer song-writer, dancer and eternal researcher, 
in Florence.
in Florence.
I recognise I am not great at updating my blog, nor my website for that matter. On the other hand, fellow painter Marc Dalessio keeps a very interesting blog, full of information that is extremely relevant to my own current concerns.
April 2009. I am exhibiting half a dozen paintings, including my war series, in the town of Auritze (Burguete) in Navarre, Spain. It forms part of the collective exhibition 'Emazteen Artea' , organized by the cultural association Itzal Aktiboa. For more info see here.
End of March to early April - ten intense days in the Basque Country amongst other things to continue my portraiture of Basque improvised singers (bertsolaris). Here is Ioanes Iparraguire who drove all the way from Arrasate (Mondragon) to pose for me patiently in my studio in San Sebastian.
On 10 March, the Basque language newspaper Berria published an interview I did with them on the phone from Florence. It marks my participation in the collective exhibition 'Emazteen Artea III' in the French Basque town of Saint Jean Pied de Port and the Spanish Basque town of Burguete until mid April.
24 February 2009 - Seminar to First year Phd researchers of the European University Institute on 'Research techniques: open-ended interviewing and participant observation'.
January - June 2009. I am working at the Florence Academy of Art (FAA), to learn more about anatomy and technique of realist drawing and painting.
I am also carrying out various research assignments, some personal and others in collaboration with different organizations, including the European University Institute and the University of the Basque Country.
See my articles published with FAA here.
I am also carrying out various research assignments, some personal and others in collaboration with different organizations, including the European University Institute and the University of the Basque Country.
See my articles published with FAA here.
December 2008. Over the Christmas period, I painted a series of landscapes from my studio in San Sebastian (Arteleku). My main subjects are the notorious Spanish prison Martutene, the vegetable patches and orchards that surround it, and its neighbours the Carmelite nuns in their nearby convent whom I can often observe working peacefully in the garden. My aim is to capture the presence of these extraordinary sites, a lasting testimony to the history and heritage of this part of the Basque Country which will soon be demolished by the relentless urbanization process taking place all around us. In a few years time Arteleku, and its fellow abandoned factories around, are also due to disappear.
November - December 2008. I am working on a new series of portraits in Florence and the Basque Country. Here, historian Davide Lombardo posing in the Palazzo Bargellini.
12 December. Andrea Calderaro and I publish a letter in the International Herald Tribune on Italian governmental cuts to Education.
30-31 November. The collective Artitadeto of which I form a part, performs in Florence. Click here to see some of their actions.
24 November: I give a seminar on 'Ethnographic methods', as part of the course on 'Methods in the Social Sciences' organised by Donatella Della Porta, at the European University Institute, Florence.
18-19 September - I attend the conference on 'European governance of migration' hosted by the Heinrich Boll Foundation, Berlin.
August 2008 -Together with three other artists, I found the transnational artist's collective Artitadeto. First performance took place in the abadoned factory SACEM, in Villabona, Basque Country, on the art of collage and the use of recycled material.
I produce a new series of postcards of life in the Basque Country, on sale at Arteis, Elkar and Le Jean Bart in Bayonne and at Kukuxka and Dacosta Gallery in Saint Jean Pied de Port. These can also be ordered by contacting me directly.
I publish an article in the July-August edition of the magazine Euroregio.
My latest contribution to research networks, here on the case of the Basque Country divided by the Franco Spanish frontier: Contested Spaces video project
August 2008 - I near completion of my series of portraits of Basque improvised singers (Iparraldeko bertsolariak). In this picture, portrait of Amets Arzallus, who came to pose for me in my studio in Arteleku, San Sebastian (Basque Country).
Zoe contributes a chapter on ethnographic research methods in the book Approaches and Methodologies in the Social Sciences: A Pluralist Perspective, published with Cambridge University Press.
10 July. Zoe will be presenting at the summer school in Media and Nationalism at the University of Vic, in Catalonia.
June - August 2008. Zoe hangs paintings of the village of Izura and its inhabitants at the summer exhibition of Haize Berri, in Izura. She also makes an installation in hommage to nature and the Basque language, 'Bizia':
11-12 April. Zoe will be participating as discussant at the conference on Diaspora and Transnationalism organised by IMISCOE at the European University Institute, in Florence, Italy.
April 2008
Zoe is given a scholarship to attend the conference of the Portrait Society of America taking place in Philadelphia, USA.
Zoe is given a scholarship to attend the conference of the Portrait Society of America taking place in Philadelphia, USA.
January - March 2008.
Zoe Bray is working at the Florence Academy of Fine Art, in Italy.
Zoe Bray is working at the Florence Academy of Fine Art, in Italy.
14 December 2007. Zoe gives a seminar on research methods in ethnography at the European University Institute, Florence, Italy.
November - December 2007.
Solo Exhibition of latest paintings and drawings: 'La Condition Humaine'.
Bayonne, in the gallery of the Basque bookshop Elkar Megadenda.
November 2007. The painter Martine Pinsolle poses for Zoe in the context of an exhibition of ´portraiture today´ in the Gallery Dacosta, Saint Jean Pied de Port. See VIDEO
October -
December 2007
December 2007 Group Exhibition: 'L'Art du Portrait'.
Gallery of Josette Dacosta, Saint Jean Pied de Port, Basque Country.
Zoe takes part with four oil and charcoal portraits.
Guided visits are given to local schools.
October - November 2007. Zoe goes to Madrid to work at the Fundacion Arauco with the realist painter Guillermo Munoz Vera.
August - September 2007. Zoe is in London and Edinburgh to paint the portraits of people she meets during her stay, as part of her long-term project of depicting identity in today's pluricultural world.
July 2007. Zoe presents at the conference on 'EthnoNationalism, Borders and European Integration' at Kingston University, Western Ontario, Canada, funded by the Carnegie Foundation, and cycles around Quebec.
July 2007. Zoe works as artist in residence at Arteleku, the contemporary art centre of San Sebastian, Basque Country.
May 2007. Zoe wins the 'Young Prize' at the Salon des Independants painting exhibition in the French Basque coastal town of Saint Jean de Luz, with this charcoal portrait of Croatian student Elena:
May - June 2007. Solo Exhibition of Florentine Paintings and Drawings. Bank corridor of the Badia Fiesolana, Florence.
March 2007. The new headquarters of the Academy of the Basque Language in Bayonne are inaugurated, with a portrait by Zoe of former president Jean Haritschelar.
Group exhibition: 'L'art au feminin', in Saint Jean Pied de Port, French Basque Country.
Zoe exhibits three big canvases in the main gallery of the town hall.
March 2007.
February 2007. Zoe moves out of her studio in Bayonne, Basque Country.
January 2007. Zoe previews the first version of her new documentary on Frontiers, as part of her presentation at the conference 'Amenagement du territoire' in Bayonne.
October 2006. Zoe presents at the workshop on Minorities and European Integration hosted by the Rumanian Academic Society in Bucarest, and travels across Rumania for painting and research.
June 2006. Solo exhibition of drawings, paintings and videos, in the gallery of the Basque bookshop Elkar Megadenda, Bayonne.
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