Candela Bado

Lives and works in New York, NY, USA

Artist statement

My artistic practice explores the relationship between the domestic inner world and the public structures that govern private life. I am interested in blurring the boundaries between these spheres through objects that act as both symbolic and material intermediaries. Architectural fragments, coins, marbles, copper wires, and ceramics—objects we relate to intimately yet which also participate in systems of circulation—are recontextualized in compositions that question their function and meaning. Transformation is a central thread in my work—manifesting in the materials I select, the spaces I study, and those that inspire me. Tile, in particular, appears frequently—not only for its role in collective memory, linked to spaces of containment and transit like bathrooms, kitchens, hospitals, or morgues—but also for its associations with hygiene, order, and control. In my practice, however, tile is reimagined: it becomes a sensitive surface, a kind of petri dish that records change and retains traces that resist erasure. Through these gestures, my work reflects on the systems that regulate intimacy and visibility, waste and value, the bodily and the symbolic—revealing how these dualities converge in seemingly simple, yet deeply charged objects.

Artwork