Laia Abril, National Photography Award 2023

The multidisciplinary artist Laia Abril (Barcelona, 1986) has won the 2023 National Photography Award from the Ministry of Culture. The jury highlighted his work on "issues that are still valid and socially and politically structure discrimination, especially against women". The award is endowed with 30,000 euros. Abril is a multidisciplinary artist who works with photography, text, video and sound. His work, structured in thematic trilogies, addresses issues related to sexuality, the body, psychology and women's rights with the aim of breaking social taboos about the different and promoting empathy, the Ministry of Culture points out.

The jury has awarded the prize in recognition of a work of artistic research that has an extensive international career. His work includes information and documentation in different parts of the planet, concentrating on "themes that remain valid and socially and politically structure discrimination, especially of women, as well as the individual and collective suffering that relegates certain people , as an anonymous mass, on the margins of society".

After graduating in journalism, Abril worked for five years at the Fàbrica artist residency in Italy as a creative editor and photographer for COLORS Magazine. He has published books such as Thinspiration (self-published, 2012), Tediousphilia (Musée de l'Elysée, 2014) and The Epilogue (Dewi Lewis, 2014), a work recognized with the Paris Photo-Aperture First Book Award, Kassel PhotoBook Festival and PHotoEspaña Best Book Award.

His work has been exhibited in several museums, one of them, the MNAC. On Sexuality, On Eating Disorders or A History of Misogyny are some of his best-known series.