A graduate of the Faculdad de Arquitectura Y Urbanismo at the University of Buenos Aires, Sylvia Libedinsky moved to London 1968. She has worked as an architect for the Greater London Council’s Schools Division, and was co-founder (along with A. M. Urquijo) of Marshmallow, a design company that created soft toys for advertising and other applications. All her original pieces were selected for the Design Centre, London.
She later worked as a freelance, designing furniture and three-dimensional work for visual merchandising (commissioned by Fitch and Co), and — since the mid-1990’s, in recurring partnership with Nick Wadley — an extensive series of cartoons, book illustrations (for Methuen, Faber, Editorial Biblos and Editorial Teseo) and posters (for the Royal Court Theatre, Centro Borges, and Cinecontact). Their ‘DoubleTakeAway’ cartoons were published in the Daily Telegraph (1996-97), and in the Royal Academy Magazine (199-98), and their weekly ‘Lax Column’ cartoons ran in the Financial Times from 2000 to 2002. ‘La vida es Sueño’ was adapted from Calderón de la Barca’s original by William Gill, and the ‘History of the European Union according to Grandad’ (co-created with Pia Ostlund) was commissioned for the European Commission website.
Her work has been exhibited in The Chelsea School of Art, Institute of Contemporary Art, Art Directions Gallery, Mario Flecha Gallery, Bookartbookshop, Stanford Street, British Cartoon Trust, Cinecontact, Victoria & Albert Museum, Jaggedart, European Commission 12 Star Gallery (London), Chapter Gallery (Wales), Graphics (Mantua), Shed (Milan), British Council (Bologna), Skanno (Helsinki), Galerie de Genieloods (Amsterdam), La Sala Vinçon (Barcelona) Jim Haynes Gallery (Paris), Centro Cultural Borges (Argentina), La Ventana Cemicual (Santiago de Chile), Clara Scremini, Paris, Artium (Fukuoka, Japan), Not in NewYork, Rotterdam, and others.
This year, she’s been invited to take part in a show at the Museo de la Historieta in Mexico City, and will also exhibit at the Citiscapes Gallery in Antwerp.