BIO
Dr Amaia Salazar is a teaching fellow and postdoctoral researcher at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM). She is currently an Academic Visitor (2022-2023) at the Ruskin School of Art, University of Oxford.
Amaia holds a Ph.D. in Fine Arts from the UCM, two undergraduate degrees in Fine Arts and Design respectively, as well as a Postgraduate Certificate in Creative Management from the Francisco de Vitoria University (UFV). She holds an Investigation, Art, and Creation master's degree, having received a UCM Excellence Scholarship. She was also an honorary scholar in the Art History department and was awarded a Ph.D. Fellowship (PIF) from the UCM and Santander Bank at the Artistic Education Department. She has been a Postdoctoral Researcher Fellow (2021-2022) at UCM and in 2022 she received the Margarita Salas Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Ministry of Science, Innovation, and Universities of the Government of Spain co-funded with European Union funds (NextGenerationEU).
Her education in visual arts is complemented by experience in cognition and emotional intelligence, having studied in the Cognitive Neuroscience course at the Nirakara Institute and Psychology at Oxford University. She has been a Visiting Researcher at the Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language (BCBL, Basque Country) in collaboration with neuroscientist Dr David Soto. Coming from a multidisciplinary background, she has approached imagination as a construction of beliefs and realities, training in Neurolinguistic Programming, and complimenting her skills with artistic education.
Amaia is part of several research projects financed by the Ministry of Science, Innovation, and Universities of the Spanish Government and the European Union, such Art and Embodied Cognition in Creative Processes: Ecological Awareness of the Self in the Environment (HAR2017-85485-P), Participatory visual arts as a welfare resource for hospitalized children and adolescents (AVISPAR) (PR87-1922605) and Innovation Strategies in Cultural Myth Criticism (AGLAYA)(H2019/HUM5714) of the UCM. She is a research member of the "Inter-University Group of the Pedagogical Museum of Children's Art" (GiMuPAI) of the UCM, and the "Innovation and Image Analysis Group" (IAI) of the UFV, researching welfare and image. Amaia is associate editor of the journal "Arte, Individuo y Sociedad" (Q1) and reviewer of the journals Kepes (Q1) and Leonardo MIT Press (Q1).
With more than 8 years of experience in the visual field, she has had the opportunity to work on graphic design, as well as creative and technological innovation projects in prestigious companies such as Coca-Cola, PhoneHouse, Gazelle Wind Power Limited, Fundación Telefónica, and Baidewei Magazine in the Marketing and Creativity Department.
Amaia has given lectures and talks in international Congresses and workshops at the University of Oxford, the University of Bologna, the Complutense University of Madrid, the Manchester School of Visual Arts, the MediaLab Prado, and the Fundación BilbaoArte of Bilbao, among others. Her work has been exhibited in more than 30 national and international exhibitions, such as the Edinburgh Art Fair, ABC Museum, Donostiartean, and Soir Zine Miami, among others. Her artwork and research have received several awards and recognitions: youngest artist award in the Revelarte Photographic Competition (ESTAMPA, 2012), First International Photography Biennial Award (Bcn, 2014), finalist in The Billboard Creative (Los Angeles, USA, 2016), Felipa Manuela Award (2017), Residencia de Estudiantes CSIC (Madrid, 2017), BAFFEST Awards (Bilbao, 2018) and ARTSFAD Awards (Bcn, 2019).