Artist Statement
My work explores identity through color, layers and transparency, oscillating between the figurative and abstract. I engage with themes of syncretism and symbols, delving into the creation of meaning from fragmentation and the loss inherent in this process. I am interested in the construction of meaning through the rearrangement of objects and narratives, using tension, texture, erasure, repetition, and color to evoke a sense of archaeological excavation. These elements allow for symbolic dissonance, layered interpretations, and emotional depth. Growing up in Ecuador, I developed a sensitivity to archaeology, spirituality, and myth, which inform my practice. I interweave contemporary myths imbued with feelings of displacement and memory, drawing from Ecuador’s layered histories and landscapes. My approach is rooted in material experimentation, where I use decay, texture, and syncretism to explore personal and collective identities.
Allegorical realism and archaeological collagism are foundational to my work. By rearranging fragments and found narratives, I compose new meanings, reflecting cultural and historical contexts alongside my own identity. Through painting and collage, I layer textures and images to create compositions that are fragmented yet whole, capturing the complexities of hybridity. The margins—whether physical, as in collage fragments, or conceptual—serve as critical spaces of possibility and invention. I view marginality as a fertile ground for creative freedom and resistance, a place where fractures become a space for new expressions. My work transcends categorical understandings of identity, embracing liminality as a space for exploration.
Color is both a narrative and emotional force in my work, with bold hues and muted tones creating visual rhythms that evoke tension and harmony. This interplay mirrors the oscillation between presence and absence, continuity and rupture, in the stories I tell. Through color and form, I explore the fluidity of identity and the layered histories embedded in materials. Theatricality often informs my practice, staging fragments as artifacts in a performance. This approach emphasizes the constructed nature of meaning and invites viewers to reconsider the narratives they bring to the work. My goal is to create pieces that resonate emotionally while provoking questions about memory, identity, and belonging.
Inspired by artists like Michael Armitage, Doron Langberg, and Lee Krasner, I view my work as a subversive reconstitution of fragments and histories. In pieces like Blood, Steel, and Gold (2024), a composite of figures and symbols merge together in an untraceable origin, yet through color and mark-making, syncretism is solidified, exemplifying an exhumation of my Ecuadorian heritage and its implications in the contemporaneity of my own identity.
Ultimately, my work is an ongoing exploration of how fragments—cultural, historical, or personal—can be reassembled to create new meanings. I aim to craft a visual language that reflects the complexities of our contemporary world while remaining deeply personal.