Bisila Noha
{{Short description|Spanish ceramist (born 1988)}}
{{EngvarB|date=February 2025}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2025}}
{{Fnh|Noha|Pascual|lang=Spanish}}
{{Infobox artist
|name=Bisila Noha
|birth_name=Bisila Noha Pascual{{Cite web|url=https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/officers/-rYJHHbphLVGu09iNOW4P-u4_lw/appointments|title=Bisila NOHA PASCUAL personal appointments | work=Find and update company information | publisher=GOV.UK}}
|birth_date={{birth month and age|1988|04}}
|birth_place=Zaragoza, Spain
|citizenship=Spanish, Equatoguinean
| field = Ceramics
}}
Bisila Noha Pascual (born April 1988) is a Spanish ceramic and mixed materials artist and activist. Based in London, England, Noha's artwork aims to challenge Western art perspectives and advance feminist and anti-capitalist perspectives. She also holds Equatoguinean citizenship.
Biography
Noha was born in 1988 and grew up in Zaragoza, Spain.{{Cite web |date=2021-10-21 |title=Bisila Noha on craftwomanship - Create (Arts) Limited |url=https://createarts.org.uk/bisila-noha/ |access-date=2025-02-20 |website=createarts.org.uk |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |title=Bisila Noha {{!}} CAS |url=https://contemporaryartsociety.org/artists/bisila-noha |access-date=2025-02-20 |website=contemporaryartsociety.org |language=en}} Her mother was from Noviercas, Soria and her father was from the Bubi people in Baney, Equatorial Guinea.{{Cite web|url=https://www.bisilanoha.co.uk/blog/2023/4/17/on-belonging-and-clay|title=On belonging and clay|date=17 April 2023 }}{{Cite web |last=Blanchard |first=Tamsin |title=Hole & Corner x Marfa Stance: Bisila Noha |url=https://www.holeandcorner.com/interviews/hole-corner-x-marfa-stance-bisila-noha |website=Hole&Corner}}{{Cite web |title=Bisila Noha – infoceramica |url=https://www.infoceramica.com/2021/01/19/bisila-noha/ |access-date=2025-02-20 |website=www.infoceramica.com}}
She moved to Madrid for university, graduating with an undergraduate degree in translation and a master's degree{{where|date=February 2025}} in international relations.{{Cite web |last=Veronika |date=2024-10-23 |title=Spotlight artist Bisila Noha |url=https://thewickculture.com/spotlight-artist-bisila-noha/ |access-date=2025-02-20 |website=The Wick Culture |language=en-GB}} After graduation, her professional career brought her to Madrid, Leipzig, Vienna, San Francisco. In 2013, Noha moved to London, United Kingdom to pursue an opportunity at an advertising agency.{{Cite web |last=Shury-Smith |first=Hannah |date=2022-08-11 |title=TBB Talks To … Art Activist Bisila Noha {{!}} The British Blacklist |url=https://thebritishblacklist.co.uk/tbb-talks-to-bisila-noha/ |access-date=2025-02-20 |language=en-GB}}
= Art career =
After moving to London, Noha began taking pottery classes and crafting her first pottery pieces. Without a background in the arts, she was largely self-taught, designing pottery to relax after work. Her initial designs focused on crafting practical clay tableware. Noha's technique developed to craft works combining storytelling to "blur the boundaries" between sculpture and tableware. Her early ceramic pieces are known for its distinctive marbled patterns, that evoke natural skies and storms.{{Cite web |last=Caroline |date=2019-05-17 |title=Meet the Maker: Bisila Noha {{!}} 91 Magazine |url=https://www.91magazine.co.uk/2019-5-15-meet-the-maker-bisila-noha/?srsltid=AfmBOoo2vwVyrumZ0KkvtqwoV6ZgYBWBeOxC6TpEQyuEr5ixGwANigmy |access-date=2025-02-20 |language=en-GB}}
Noha continued to refine her technique through travel, learning from traditional potters in Mexico, Italy, Armenia and Morocco.{{Cite web |date=2020-05-05 |title=A Life Journey Through Clay |url=https://decoratingdissidence.com/2020/05/05/bisila-noha/ |access-date=2025-02-20 |language=en}} Inspired by the work of women from the global south, her work seeks to challenge contemporary ideas about authorship, design and labour.{{Cite web |title=Bisila Noha: 'How many lineages of women's labour are we not aware of?' |url=https://www.craftscouncil.org.uk/stories/bisila-noha-how-many-lineages-of-womens-labour-are-we-not-aware-of |access-date=2025-02-20 |website=www.craftscouncil.org.uk |language=en}}{{Cite web |date=2021-10-21 |title=Bisila Noha on craftwomanship | publisher=Create (Arts) Limited |url=https://createarts.org.uk/bisila-noha/ |access-date=2025-02-20 |website=createarts.org.uk |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |title=The politics of clay: Black women, ceramics and contemporary art | publisher=Art UK |url=https://artuk.org/discover/stories/the-politics-of-clay-black-women-ceramics-and-contemporary-art |access-date=2025-02-20 |website=artuk.org |language=en}} Noha additionally uses her pottery to explore her own identity and heritage. For example, she describes mixing using different colours of glaze as a metaphor to connect with her mixed race identity and experimenting with traditional Spanish pottery designs to showcase her Spanish heritage.{{Cite web |date=2021-06-28 |title=Bisila Noha | publisher=Aucoot |url=https://www.aucoot.com/2021/06/28/bisila-noha/ |access-date=2025-02-20 |website=Aucoot.com }}{{Cite web |title=Ceramicists to know - 5 Sep 2024 - Homes and Gardens - UK Magazine - Readly |url=https://gb.readly.com/magazines/homes-and-gardens-uk/2024-09-05/66d62f2a5de3d80a2f4be26c |access-date=2025-02-20 |website=gb.readly.com |language=en}}
In 2020, she began the "Baney Clay Project", a series of works using clay that was brought back from the Baney village in Equatorial Guinea, the site of her father's ancestral home.{{Cite web |date=2021-08-02 |title=Pandemic Diary: Bisila Noha |url=https://decoratingdissidence.com/making-during-a-pandemic/bisila-noha-making-in-a-pandemic/ |access-date=2025-02-20 |language=en}} She used the project to engage with her African identity, and to explore her "rebirth as a racialised woman". The stoneware and porcelain pieces utilize designs that evoke women's bodies and further challenge ideas around women's labour and identity.{{Cite news |last=Ashby |first=Chloë |date=2022-02-10 |title='Body Vessel Clay': Black Women and Ceramics |url=https://www.frieze.com/article/body-vessel-clay-black-women-and-ceramics%E2%80%932022-review |access-date=2025-02-20 |work=Frieze |language=en |issue=226 |issn=0962-0672}}{{Cite web |title=Collect 2025 makers: Bisila Noha on women's labour |url=https://www.craftscouncil.org.uk/stories/collect-2025-makers-bisila-noha-on-womens-labour |access-date=2025-02-20 |website=www.craftscouncil.org.uk |language=en}} Noha has subsequently incorporated the volcanic red clays from Bioko island, and the home of her grandfather in her works.
In 2021, she moved beyond pottery to create with new materials, including plaster, wax, and bronze.{{Cite web |title=Bisila Noha to Explore Heritage and Craft Through Clay During G.A.S. Residency |url=https://www.guestartistsspace.com/News/bisila-noha-to-explore-heritage-and-craft-through-clay-during-gas-residency |access-date=2025-02-20 |website=guestartist |language=en-GB}}
In 2022, Noha held her first solo exhibition, ‘Uprooting, re-rooting: Matter and Construction of the self’, in Bordeaux.{{Cite web |last=Foale |first=Emma |date=2022-12-07 |title=Bisila Noha unveils first solo exhibition {{!}} Storytelling with sculpture |url=https://enkimagazine.com/bisila-noha-unveils-first-solo-exhibition-storytelling-with-sculpture/ |access-date=2025-02-20 |website=Enki Magazine |language=en-US}} Today, Noha's work is found in the permanent collections of the Victoria & Albert Museum,{{Citation |last=Noha |first=Bisila |title=Reunion VIII: Beginnings |date=2021 |url=https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1711824/reunion-viii-beginnings-sculpture-noha-bisila/ |access-date=2025-02-20}} the Crafts Council, Nottingham Castle Museum and Art Gallery, and the National Museum of Scotland.{{Cite web |last=Thrown |date=2023-03-20 |title=National Musuems [sic] Scotland acquire Bisila Noha's 'Reunion XIX' |url=https://www.throwncontemporary.co.uk/post/national-musuems-scotland-acquire-bisila-noha-s-reunion-xix |access-date=2025-02-20 |website=thrown |language=en}}
=Activism=
Outside of her artwork, Noha is a community activist, advocating for social justice and diversity in the arts industry. She leads the London LGBTQ+ Community Centre{{Cite web |title=The powerful story of the LGBTQ+ Community Centre in London |url=https://www.strengthscope.com/podcasts/how-the-lgbtq-community-centre-in-london-came-to-life-and-its-path-to-permanence |access-date=2025-02-20 |website=Strengthscope |language=en}} and is a co-director of Lon-art Creative, a social activism organization for creatives.{{Cite web |title=Bisila Noha |url=https://londonlgbtqcentre.org/exhibition/bisila-noha/ |access-date=2025-02-20 |website=London LGBTQ Community Centre |language=en-GB}} Noha also works with Design Can, an initiative advocating for more inclusivity in the design industry.
Collections and exhibitions
- 2019 – London and Edinburgh Art Fairs{{Cite web |title=Zetteler - Bisila Noha |url=https://www.zetteler.co.uk/clients/bisila-noha |access-date=2025-02-20 |website=Zetteler |language=en-GB}}
- 2021 – OFF – Focus Céramiques d'art', Bordeaux, France
- 2021 – Maker’s Eye, Craft Council and Atherton Green Art Gallery, Hampshire{{Cite web |date=2023-02-23 |title=Collect, the leading international fair for contemporary craft and design, returns to Somerset House |url=https://www.somersethouse.org.uk/press/collect-leading-international-fair-contemporary-craft-and-design-returns-somerset-house |access-date=2025-02-20 |website=Somerset House |language=en}}
- 2022 – Body Vessel Clay: Black Women, Ceramics and Contemporary Art, at Two Temple Place and York Art Gallery{{Cite news |last=Sherwin |first=Skye |date=2022-01-31 |title=Throwing muses: the Black female artists who create with clay |url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2022/jan/31/throwing-muses-the-black-female-artists-who-create-with-clay |access-date=2025-02-20 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}{{Cite web |last=Shury-Smith |first=Hannah |date=2022-08-11 |title=Body Vessel Clay at York Art Gallery {{!}} The British Blacklist |url=https://thebritishblacklist.co.uk/body-vessel-clay-at-york-art-gallery/ |access-date=2025-02-20 |language=en-GB}}
- 2022-23 – Uprooting, re-rooting: Matter and Construction of the self, Solo Exhibition, Galerie REVEL, Bordeaux
- 2023 – Solo Exhibition, Unit London
- 2024 – Miradas ecofeministas en el arte ecuatoguineano at the Spanish Cultural Centres in Bata and Malabo, Equatorial Guinea
- 2025 – Artist's Residency G.A.S. Foundation, Lagos
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Noha, Bisila}}
Category:Artists from Zaragoza
Category:21st-century Spanish women artists
Category:Spanish people of Equatoguinean descent
Category:Spanish people of Bubi descent
Category:21st-century Equatoguinean women
Category:Spanish women ceramists
Category:LGBTQ rights activists