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Wednesday Woman: Niki de Saint Phalle
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Niki de Saint Phalle (1930–2002) was a French artist known for her bold, imaginative sculptures, paintings, and large-scale public works. Self-taught and fiercely independent, she first gained attention in the early 1960s with her “Tirs” (shooting paintings), explosive performances in which she fired rifles at plaster reliefs filled with paint. This series challenged ideas of authorship, violence, and creation. She later became internationally celebrated for her vibrant, voluptuous “Nanas” — sculptural figures that embraced the female form with unapologetic exuberance.
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Working across sculpture, painting, film, and large-scale public environments, Saint Phalle fused myth, politics, and personal narrative into a singular visual language. Her most ambitious project, The Tarot Garden in Tuscany, stands as a monumental expression of her lifelong interest in symbolism and fantastical architecture. Throughout her career, she used art as a vehicle for healing, activism, and radical imagination, and left behind a legacy both playful and profoundly humane.
Wednesday Woman: Gabriela Carrillo
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Gabriela Carrillo is a Mexican architect known for her sensitive, site-responsive designs that blend contemporary forms with local context and materiality. Born in Mexico City in 1978, she studied at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and worked with renowned architect Mauricio Rocha for 19 years. In 2019, she opened her own firm, Taller Gabriela Carrillo.
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Carrillo approaches architecture as a collaborative endeavor. “I believe we need to break the paradigm of starchitects and start to work collaboratively,” she says. Her architectural style is rooted in material honesty, context-responsiveness, light, and sensory experience. She often works with local and traditional materials, such as regional stone, wood, and brick, and combines these with careful detailing to let light, shadow, and texture define the space. Her major projects include the Criminal Courts for Oral Trials in Pátzcuaro, the San Pablo Oztotepec Market, Iturbide Studio in Mexico City, and the Photo Museum Cuatro Caminos.
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Carrillo has received numerous honors for her work, including the Emerging Voices Award from The Architectural League of New York (2014) and the Architect of the Year Award from The Architectural Review (2017). She is also a co-founder of the Colectivo C733, dedicated to developing public projects in Mexico.