Saturday, April 25, 2026 · No. 114
Artist Profile

Mirtha Dermisache

Mirtha Dermisache was an Argentine artist recognized for her pioneering work in asemic writing, a form of art that mimics the appearance of text without conveying literal meaning. Her practice focused on the graphic gesture of handwriting as a visual language independent of linguistic content.

Biography

Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Mirtha Dermisache developed her unique artistic language in the late 1960s. She gained early recognition for her experiments with asemic writing, which she distributed through self-published newspapers and books, intentionally bypassing traditional gallery circuits to reach a wider public audience.

Her work is characterized by the repetitive, rhythmic use of ink on paper to create structures that resemble letters, lines, and paragraphs. By stripping writing of its semantic function, she emphasized the aesthetic and gestural qualities of the written mark, effectively bridging the gap between literature and visual art.

Dermisache's influence has grown significantly in the years following her death, with her work entering the permanent collections of major institutions such as the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris and the Museum of Contemporary Art of Barcelona (MACBA). Her contributions to conceptual art were formally acknowledged in 2012 when she was posthumously awarded the Konex Award.

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Career Highlights

  • 2012Posthumous Konex Award in Concept Art
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