Cristina Camacho
Bio: Cristina Camacho (b. 1987, Bogotá, Colombia) earned a BFA in Design and Fine Arts from Universidad de los Andes. In 2010, she moved to New York where she studied at the School of Visual Arts, NYU, the Art Students League, and Parsons. She participated in the Summer Residency Program at SVA. Her work has been shown in Bogotá and New York.
Cuts. Layers. Weight. Gravity. Experiential. Personal narratives. Anthropomorphic and zoomorphic. Musical illustrations. Deconstruction. Construction. Dissections. Textures. Asymmetry. Symmetry. Color. Form. Structures. Grids. Materiality. Body. Shadows. Space. Volume. Process based. Geometry. Light.
Thesis Exhibition
Artist Statement: What do you intend when you layer and cut canvas?
In my paintings, I reimagine the materiality of the canvas through the cut and the juxtaposed layers. I push its logic to transform it into three-dimensional anthropomorphic and zoomorphic entities, personal narratives, architectural spaces, and musical illustrations. Through the deconstruction and construction of the piece, I create structural and spatial changes, where gravity, shadows, and color reflections evoke a physical and tactile experience. Without planning or sketching, I paint, cut, and juxtapose layers of multicolored stretched canvases. The cut is a line, a drawing, while the canvas as the paint is used to create the image. I dissect each layer as if it were skin, shaping it to reveal hidden secrets. The process is always evident; my tracks remain for the viewer to see.
The pieces are always intuitive and autobiographical. All of them are informed by lived moments, people I know, and places I have been. The passion for textiles that runs in the family, an extremely talented aunt who unconsciously taught me everything about color and painting, an old man who comes to life in etchings and drawings, a dictionary of imaginary places, a series of notebooks of doodles by my mother, the music my father listens to while appreciating a garden in the dark.
