Ana Busto is a Spanish video artist who was born in Bilbao, Spain. She studied journalism at the Universidad Autonoma of Barcelona. She has worked with video, photography, sculpture, sound, and performance.

Busto divides her time between Spain, New York and Cummington.

Artist Statement

I am driven  by both an interest in formal experimentation and the desire to work with what I refer to as “the underdog” – my desire to elevate the discourse around marginalized groups and place it in direct confrontation with the art world. I have developed an extensive project about professional and amateur boxers, and another about Paralympic athletes – people with disabilities competing in sports. In both themes the athlete’s bodies are modified by sport; in one the body is destroyed and in the other the body is built.

In my  last body of work I  have used ceramic, wood, and interactive sound directly from her explorations of nature, climate change and its devastation. A hike up a smoking forest in New Mexico is reflected in my ceramic work that takes on a destroyed, fragmented figuration, bringing to mind the remains of something: a living contemporary artifact.

The personal experience of the devastating fire that destroyed my home in 2019 manifested itself in the use of burnt wood and beams from the site. Lanzas are spears with little shelves for ceramic heads bringing to mind objects of self-defense warding off and at the same time commemorating and documenting the destruction I have witnessed on a broader and more personal level. The two installations were presented at Ventana244 art space in Williamsburg, a space where I co- curated 60 exhibitions on five years.

I covered the Paralympic swimming competitions in the USA, Argentina, and Spain, and worked with teams of the USA, Canada, Spain and China. I respond to the theme of disability in a deeply personal way

I took photographs, made videos and video spots and did a graphic campaign for this work. The work has been presented on five museums in China and Paris. The video Olympians is part of the DVD Performances , Art and Sport, produced with the support of Adida

I immersed myself in the boxing world out of a desire to understand who boxers are. I photographed professional boxing matches in the USA and Mexico and traveled to Cuba to work with the Olympic team. The photographs are a mix of studio photos and documentary style. I have exhibited boxing work in Spain, the USA, Brazil and Germany. For the catalogue  on Boxing “ Night Fights” she collaborated with the African American poet Quincy Troupe, who is known for having co-written the biography of Miles Davis.

Studies
BA in Education, Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona
Journalism, Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona
Master In Interactive Telecommunication Program at New York University