Tania Blanco

The Miserable Wheat Miracle (MWM) is an artistic research project that takes wheat as its symbolic, political and material axis to critically and sensorially explore the contemporary agro-alimentary system. Inspired by Henri Michaux’s exploration of the unconscious, Tania Blanco employs an experimental pictorial practice to create a series of works on paper, which are based on her observation of wheat samples seen through a microscope. She then speculates on the processes involved in the transformation, industrialisation and decomposition of food. 

The artists engages directly with the Legazpi neighbourhood through fieldwork carried out in local supermarkets, bakeries and markets. Her work also includes a publishing model that will include images, texts and contributions from other individuals. In contrast to industrial languages that reduce life to an optimised product, this project urges us to pay sensitive attention to the material, its complexity, and its inherent mystery. A way of looking at what we eat to rethink what we are.

Biography

Tania Blanco (Valencia, 1978) holds a BA in Fine Arts from the Polytechnic University of Valencia and has also studied at Middlesex University (London). She has also completed a postgraduate diploma at the Royal Academy of Arts (2017–2021). Her work explores socio-political and environmental issues through a critical and speculative visual perspective. 

She has received grants and residencies from several institutions, including the Pollock-Krasner Foundation; the Casa de Velázquez; the Caja Madrid Foundation (Generaciones 2014); the Bogliasco Foundation (Liguria Arts Centre); Caixa Galicia; the Ministry of Culture (Formarte); Alfons Roig; and the Cité Internationale des Arts (Paris). 

She has held solo exhibitions in Sala Parpalló, Alarcón Criado, Formatocómodo, Gabinete de Dibujos, Bilbaoarte and Josedelafuente. She has also participated in collective exhibitions in centres such as Centquatre (Paris), Beall Center (California), Assembly Point (London), La Casa Encendida and CentroCentro.

Tania Blanco is a recipient of a Three-month Residency for Environmental Projects (2025).