Victoria Civera
19 Oct - 20 Nov 2010
VICTORIA CIVERA
“Madre Norte”
October 19 - November 20, 2010
The present exhibition shows a selection of her latest works of painting and sculpture, in which Victoria continues to explore the role of the woman as a thematic object converting her into the protagonist of her own pictorial universe.
The circle continues to be one of the common mediums and also one of the most common symbols in her compositions. It is the origin and subject of her work and has accompanied this innovating artist right from the beginning of her career.
J.U: I think it was when you were starting as an artist in New York when you used the tondo by itself for the first time. Do you remember how the idea came to you? And what were the differences between your proposals to use the circle as a medium or to paint oval or circular forms over square formats; forms that were almost always related with orifices, lips or vaginas?
V.C: It just happened out of pure necessity to refine the idea to the maximum, I was looking for silences and whispers, intensity. With them the concentric intention was emphasized, and at the same time specified, as if they were isolated words. I was looking for a “pristine” vocabulary, one that was precise and simple. The search for material to work with, made me see and understand better the need for change, in this sense I was looking for “an isolated sound of its own”.
I began this adventure in my small studio in Williamsburg. And it was the great adventure of my changes!
During those years, 87-88, the contents began to define themselves in a more acute way each time; I began to learn to listen more, improving the new plastic solutions in order to feel more myself than ever. Problems, things managed themselves with rhythm, with ideas and with a great deal of happiness. Everything was important, even the small details: folding a canvas over the frame, the smells, sounds and shadows of each transparency... they were all very vivid emotions, mixed together. I was ready for whatever I encountered. I strongly recall the dark circles, as dense as the “universes”, the ovals, like gaps of eyes that were looking out... other worlds in miniature.
It was like falling in love again, rediscovering painting in a passionate way.
“The circle is a constant feature where motifs appear and reappear in a dialogical way, in what has been characterised as a type of conversation. Reluctant to a general interpretation, both in her painting as well as in her work, Civera creates a totality that is larger that the sum of all its parts, and which cannot be reduced to a single piece”1
1.- Hirsch, Faye (2010), El círculo íntimo de Victoria Civera, Victoria Civera: atando el cielo, CAC Málaga.
“Madre Norte”
October 19 - November 20, 2010
The present exhibition shows a selection of her latest works of painting and sculpture, in which Victoria continues to explore the role of the woman as a thematic object converting her into the protagonist of her own pictorial universe.
The circle continues to be one of the common mediums and also one of the most common symbols in her compositions. It is the origin and subject of her work and has accompanied this innovating artist right from the beginning of her career.
J.U: I think it was when you were starting as an artist in New York when you used the tondo by itself for the first time. Do you remember how the idea came to you? And what were the differences between your proposals to use the circle as a medium or to paint oval or circular forms over square formats; forms that were almost always related with orifices, lips or vaginas?
V.C: It just happened out of pure necessity to refine the idea to the maximum, I was looking for silences and whispers, intensity. With them the concentric intention was emphasized, and at the same time specified, as if they were isolated words. I was looking for a “pristine” vocabulary, one that was precise and simple. The search for material to work with, made me see and understand better the need for change, in this sense I was looking for “an isolated sound of its own”.
I began this adventure in my small studio in Williamsburg. And it was the great adventure of my changes!
During those years, 87-88, the contents began to define themselves in a more acute way each time; I began to learn to listen more, improving the new plastic solutions in order to feel more myself than ever. Problems, things managed themselves with rhythm, with ideas and with a great deal of happiness. Everything was important, even the small details: folding a canvas over the frame, the smells, sounds and shadows of each transparency... they were all very vivid emotions, mixed together. I was ready for whatever I encountered. I strongly recall the dark circles, as dense as the “universes”, the ovals, like gaps of eyes that were looking out... other worlds in miniature.
It was like falling in love again, rediscovering painting in a passionate way.
“The circle is a constant feature where motifs appear and reappear in a dialogical way, in what has been characterised as a type of conversation. Reluctant to a general interpretation, both in her painting as well as in her work, Civera creates a totality that is larger that the sum of all its parts, and which cannot be reduced to a single piece”1
1.- Hirsch, Faye (2010), El círculo íntimo de Victoria Civera, Victoria Civera: atando el cielo, CAC Málaga.