Artist Statement
My work examines advertising, branding, superficiality, and the construction of value under the lens of American neoliberal capitalism. I drape, wrap, and cover bodies and objects with various patterned fabrics to transform once recognizable forms into abstracted shapes, semi-composed inklings of what lies underneath.
The obscuring of the form through covering creates multi-layered, illusory facades. Ensconced in pattern and color, identifiable forms are enshrined and transformed, reshaping their visual structures of identification as a way of questioning how value is manufactured and challenging perceptions of what is real/unreal, valuable/valueless.
The additive layer of multiple brightly colored, patterned facades highlights the addictive structure of over-stimulation as a gesture towards the American tendency to champion superficial accumulation. It is this illusory quality of the veneer, complete with implied volume and depth, that bemuses and betrays the two dimensional space of the stretched canvas as the painted surface becomes an additional layer of the facade.
I was born and raised in San Diego, California. I received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting from San Francisco Art Institute, and I recently graduated with a Master of Fine Arts at University of California San Diego. I live and work in San Diego, California.
Photo by Arlene Mejorado