A Mesmerizing Thought

December 17, 2020 in Contemporary art, Painters

Artist Meg Biram is an artist of many traits who is constantly observing, exploring ideas, and putting them into motion. The resourcefulness of her creative process engages her audiences in her abstract leaning pieces. That sense of transparency is rare in an artist, but it is also greatly appreciated by those who follow her work.

She explains, “My brain never stops. I'm constantly getting ideas. I have notebooks and sketchbooks filled with ideas and also type them into the Notes app on my phone. I will even sketch stuff on my phone in the middle of the night and find it in the morning. I've learned that any spark of an idea, no matter how small, write it up, sketch it in the moment. You will forget if you don't. You might not execute it immediately, but the day you have a creative block you have so much to go through for inspiration.”

Aesthetic

There is playfulness and lightness in Biram’s work, which allows for an ease in connectivity with the viewer. Biram’s work exudes versatility, having experience in a variety of mediums from painting on canvas, murals, to creating stylish Christmas ornaments, and modernly ornate acrylic trays. In her paintings, Biram is great at portraying polarities in a contained manner, where opposite hues become part of the narrative just as much as the background.

She is skilled at drawing your eye to the entirety of the piece. The repetition of patterns and lines are done in an endless way so that there’s no beginning or end per say. Biram states, “I like texture. It's not always included but it often is. I also love a little mystery. People ask me how in the world I made something, and I love that.” She applies texture and focus to all moving parts to allow for flow and motion. This technique makes patterns hold that collective feeling of belonging together, but also existing separately within the whole. Each piece exists within the represented collective space.

Deeper Thoughts

The soft tones interlocked with stronger ones show how each piece has moving parts and how they work together in a neverending manner. It’s that sense of fragility as well that makes Biram’s work unique. “Concept and meaning is very important to me. If I connect with something or it's emotional to me, there's a good chance I'll paint it at some point,” she says. These pieces are also held together by the textures and the small nooks and turns you find in between, along with symmetry and a sense of organic perfection. You get a sense of that because the works feel like she’s doing them from the heart, even if they’re abstract. She is painting from within in an intuitive way to express what matters.

Conclusion

Biram’s vision has a sense of deep knowing. Like a connection she holds dear to who she is, what she has experienced, what is important to her, and how she conveys that in her work. She says, “I like to have a plan — for my business and for my work. I rarely just do pure expression painting, but sometimes do. I like to go into things with at least some idea of what I'm doing, it doesn't happen that way all the time but it makes me feel better.” We can see how this idea translates into her work with each movement on the canvas, mural, or ornament as having a deeper meaning, and that creates an important visual connection with her viewers.

All photos courtesy of the artist. For more on Meg Biram’s work, please visit her website.

Today’s poem reflects the sensibility and form we see in Meg’s work:

It's all I have to bring to-day

By Emily Dickinson

It's all I have to bring to-day,

This, and my heart beside,

This, and my heart, and all the fields,

And all the meadows wide.

Be sure you count, should I forget, --

Someone the sum could tell, --

This, and my heart, and all the bees

Which in the clover dwell.

There’s Freedom in Deconstruction

November 25, 2020 in Art, Latin American art, Contemporary art

Many times, abstract art is the result of examining something tangible or conceptual, taking it apart, and presenting it in a different manner. Brazilian painter and sculpture artist José Bechara understands how to take complex, external influences from one’s life and transform them into meticulous creations that cause us to question the depth of what they may be representing. He touches on how his work engages with the space where they’re found. “Through the experimentation of different materials and territories in dimensional and three dimensional works. Along the years, I have always worked on paintings, sculptures and installations dialoguing with the space (by building or activating it), memories and time, as well as its impacts on individuals and society,” he says.

Aesthetic

Each of Bechara’s pieces are creatively planned out. The sharp edges, raw materials, geometrical conjunctions, and linear pathways show flexibility within a rigid setting. Each piece takes on such a dimensional stance that it allows viewers to contemplate its many layers and angles, even in the paintings, where the thin lines are delicate mazes that blend with the industrial-like backbone found in the background.

He explains, “Even as a fan of geometry, I like to confront its history and tradition, rejecting the idea of a “perfect form” promised by geometry as we see in art history. Geometry, in my work, celebrates failure, doubt and it hesitates against life, as I believe we do, as humans, every day.” The sculptures instigate a gravitational challenge for our perception of what we already know about art to expand. Many of these pieces act like a rebellion against what shapes should look when combined. They force you to embrace that imperfect perfection, chaos, and closely inspect each linear and material interaction within each piece.

Deeper Meaning

It is the raw elements found in Bechara’s work that makes the pieces even more engaging. The use of oxidation, wood, and subtleties of color allow the sculptures and paintings to hold a level of fragility. There’s a sense of impermanence too, as if everything could change with one touch. One that is tied to deconstructive elements of what is underneath, like looking at the structural bones of a home instead of the facade.

This narrative takes us back to the original stance of personal dialogue with the external world when looking at his work. One that speaks of looking within to discover what is underneath the surface, and then rebuilding that narrative based on what you find there, first and foremost. Bechara expands on this topic, “I am not a narrator of daily life; I am an abstract artist. However, I am always attentive to the average dramas of existence, especially of the effects social dynamics have in individuals' lives. The relationship between past and present, work and environment. In a certain way, I believe some of my main questions, described above as failure, inexorability of time, finitude, hesitation and the fragility of daily life, touch on some people’s social dramas.”

Conclusion

The way we look at Bechara’s work can provide insight on our lives’ own twists and turns. At times, things fall apart, literally or figuratively, and that is what his work is asking us to look at sometimes. That necessary curve ball that life throws at us is at times a necessity to regain perspective and rebuild in a different, better way.

All photos courtesy of José Bechara. For more about his work, please visit his website.

Today’s poem represents the multidimensional aspects of life found in José’s work:

My House is the Red Earth

BY JOY HARJO

My house is the red earth; it could be the center of the world. I’ve heard New York, Paris, or Tokyo called the center of the world, but I say it is magnificently humble. You could drive by and miss it. Radio waves can obscure it. Words cannot construct it, for there are some sounds left to sacred wordless form. For instance, that fool crow, picking through trash near the corral, understands the center of the world as greasy strips of fat. Just ask him. He doesn’t have to say that the earth has turned scarlet through fierce belief, after centuries of heartbreak and laughter—he perches on the blue bowl of the sky, and laughs.

Shaping the Wind

August 25, 2020 in Art, Contemporary art

Veronica Matiz’s 3D sculptural visions are driven by her curiosity to transform raw elements. The Colombian artist’s fondness for the visual arts came naturally to her in childhood. She explains, “My taste for art started from a very young age, if I remember correctly since I was 6 years old. My mother would drop me off at an aunt's house after school, she was a student at the Faculty of Arts at the National University. She showed me everything she did and let me use her paints and materials, which founded my passion for art.”

Aesthetics

Matiz’s sculptures are composed of geometric shapes that blend seamlessly. Each steel piece complements the previous one to provide that “growing” effect that adds to the gestalt of the sculpture. It is in that repetition of shapes that gives her work a sense of solidity, which is then matched with a color that is as equally striking to the eye. “The aspects that matter the most in my work are light, shape, color and material; it is these elements that help me openly create, and geometry is an essential part. [There is] play and experiment with different angles in a constant search, giving it movement and achieving different shapes in the same sculpture,” she says.

It is through the motion-like shaping that the sculptures create that airy yet grounded aesthetic to them. Each piece’s center of gravity allows for the sculpture to be built upon piece by piece, which then evokes freely created movement. The finished product at times resembles those organic shapes found in nature and living things.

The artist touches on this aspect, “I started making sculptures with pure geometry, playing with the juxtaposition of form and discovering the wide use of steel sheets. With this cold and masculine material, I managed to create harmonic forms with movement and volume; simulating nature as with butterflies and their great variety of colors and shapes.”

A Deeper Meaning

There is a slight hypnotic element to Matiz’s work. It comes from the way the geometric elements form patterns through repetition. The effect also results in a unique experience for every person. Matiz’s sculptures are a 360° experience and what one sees will depend on where they are standing.

Her work is strong proof of how something simple as a line or curve can be made into something non-static and that evolves. The bright paint colors evoke strong feelings of liveliness, which is indicative of that pull and push view set in motion by each sculpture. Matiz explains, “My evolution can be seen in each of my works, I am always trying to innovate, be it with shape, color, or texture. I always want to put out works that occur to me and seem almost impossible.”

One Last Note

What makes Matiz’s work most enjoyable is the fact that she challenges herself and the viewer to drop assumptions about materials and what is possible through art. She transforms rigid materials, making them appear pliable. Matiz breaks the boundary of what abstract sculpture should look like by making it bold, bendable, and beautiful.

She is currently working on new pieces that will be unveiled next month. “I'm working on new organic shapes, experimenting with colors, and with oxide. I am doing large format, three-dimensional wall sculptures. In September we will see the first results,” she says, and we look forward to it!

For more on the artist’s work, please visit her website.

*Interview translated from Spanish