Continuous Line, Noise of the Water & Summertime | Darwin Estacio Martinez

June 11, 2023 Karinna Gomez

JUNE 2023
NORTH AND SOUTH GALLERIES
Continuous Line, Noise of the Water & Summertime | Darwin Estacio Martinez

Darwin Estacio Martinez was born in 1982, in Manzanillo, Cuba; he is a graduate from the Professional Academy of Fine Arts "El Alba" in Holguin city, and also is a graduate from the Higher Institute of Arts in Havana. He is professor at the National Fine Arts Academy (San Alejandro), and has had an extensive artistic career having participated exhibitions across Cuba and other countries around the world. Images of his works have been included in several publications and many of his artworks belong to private collections in and outside of the Island.

My paintings and videos are intended to embody general ideas through fragments and details that allude to a chain of actions that are maintained only in a speculative and interpretive level. For me, nothing happens except what an observer is able to infer. The use of the human figure removed from any individual reference helps me focus on personality archetypes. I use each figure as a kind human being type. I want to achieve in the medium of cinema the effect I achieve in my painting and paradoxically to create within my paintings that which I have captured in film.

www.darwinestacioart.com

Virtual Exhibition Tour

New Normal | Erica Entrop

June 11, 2023 Karinna Gomez

JUNE 2023
CENTER GALLERY
New Normal | Erica Entrop

Erica Entrop was born in Roswell, New Mexico and graduated Cum Laude from the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque with her BFA. After completing her studies, she began traveling across the United States exhibiting in different locations including Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles. She has had an extensive artistic career having participated in exhibitions across the country and the world. Her works have recently been included in the Premier edition of Blue Bee Magazine. In the past year she has participated in the 13th Havana Biannual and the 25th Romerias Festival showcasing her newest film works in collaboration with her partner, Cuban artist, Darwin Estacio Martinez.

New Normal
My work began capturing commuters on the trains and buses of Los Angeles. The genre that seemed to capture the historical narrate of the American experience is that of realism.

A year after I created the I, Voyeur series I moved to Havana, Cuba. As my time outside of the country extended, I began to grow nostalgic about the United States. Looking to Edward Hopper, Norman Rockwell and George Tooker for the attitude and environment that felt most true to my memories of living and working in Los Angeles.

This year I became a mother. During my pregnancy I was drawn to the subject of children and the modern experience. The conversation between the nostalgic view of a Rockwell but for a new generation. How are technology and societal norms have altered forever the experience of the individual. Our children will live in a world so removed from what we lived. For me, even more so given that my daughter is part Cuban, what she will go through is completely removed from the story of both of her parents. Capturing that modern storyline was my motivation in revisiting Rockwell’s pieces and branching out from what he captured in his Saturday Evening post pieces.

Another aspect that has impacted the genre of realism that has had a true revolution is the presence of photography in our everyday lives. How photography impacted the masters of the genre in America is for me an area of interest in that the cellphone has altered not only in the same manner that photography flattens the image, but also in how we have been modified by this technology that is ever present at our finger tips.

This all creates for me an interest in the artist as lens and how I can project that into what may be the modern equivalent to the nostalgia that pervades the historical realism of the genre. The ability to experience realism as a true reflection of reality is a collaboration between the artist and the audience. The perspective must be shared in order for the realism to be truly seen as truth.

www.ericaentrop.com

Virtual Exhibition Tour

FACE IT! - Faces of Fear, Anger, Reverie, Defiance, Delusion and more | Ronald Viol

August 15, 2022 Karinna Gomez

Ronald Viol, *Scowling Man,* glazed stoneware, approximately 16 x 9 x 11 inches

AUGUST 2022
NORTH GALLERY
FACE IT! - Faces of Fear, Anger, Reverie, Defiance, Delusion and more | Ronald Viol

Face IT! is an exhibition, primarily, of ceramic vessels and sculptures that explore how the human face expresses ideas, emotions, feelings, and moods. The sculptures range in size from several inches to over two feet. The works are made of stoneware clay and they are stained, underglazed, painted, weathered, and glaze fired to cone 5.

Artist Statement
Throughout history the human face has been a major art genre. Artists depict the human face because of its formalistic beauty and Its ability to express a wide range of ideas, emotions, feelings and moods. In portraying the human face artists have used every type of media, style and technique. I use clay to portray the human face because of its unbelievable plasticity, chromatic/textural density and its inherent variability. My sculptures are stoneware, painted, stained, weathered, underglazed, glazed and fired to cone 5. In my ceramic sculpture I address how the face makes meaning out of some of the issues that define the modern world. These issues are universal and in some instances they are of particular importance to Alaskans. How do isolation, alienation, division, uncertainty and living under constant surveillance affect us? What effect do social, political, economic and psychological pressures have upon us? What do we look like when we are in pain, afraid, angry, silly, envious, elated, happy and delusional? My sculptures address these ideas in unique ways. The source of my information is looking at faces in the world. The media, another source, presents us with countless images of the human face in every possible configuration. I like to turn off the sound on the news, movies and television programs to watch the expressions of the actors and personalities’ faces. I often zoom in on the transitory video image with my iPhone to capture a still image for additional study.

Some books that have influenced me:

How Emotions are Made, Lisa Feldman Barrett
The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animal, Charles Darwin
Anatomy of Facial Expressions, Uldis Zarins
Facial Expressions: A Visual Reference for Artists, Mark Simon

JUNE 2023NORTH AND SOUTH GALLERIESContinuous Line, Noise of the Water & Summertime | Darwin Estacio Martinez

Virtual Exhibition Tour

JUNE 2023CENTER GALLERYNew Normal | Erica Entrop

Virtual Exhibition Tour

AUGUST 2022NORTH GALLERYFACE IT! - Faces of Fear, Anger, Reverie, Defiance, Delusion and more | Ronald Viol

Virtual Exhibition Tour

JUNE 2023
NORTH AND SOUTH GALLERIES
Continuous Line, Noise of the Water & Summertime | Darwin Estacio Martinez

JUNE 2023
CENTER GALLERY
New Normal | Erica Entrop

AUGUST 2022
NORTH GALLERY
FACE IT! - Faces of Fear, Anger, Reverie, Defiance, Delusion and more | Ronald Viol