This painting talks about the resilience, the vulnerability, and the empathy of human conditions. I am inspired by artist from Western renaissance and the studies of the human figure with the painting The Three Graces. Renaissance artist Paul Rubens informs in my work how the portrayal of the radiance, the joy and the nature of human life was a living form of expression in the renaissance, and how I can use these references within the modern to express the ambiguity of what it means todays experiencing the uncertain, the grief, and the anxiety in the way we struggle conditions of life today. I am using the language from cultural identity with modern geometric forms; and the figurative self-portrait to talk in the contemporary. The three self-portraitures resemble the metaphors from living different perspectives and I want to the viewer to feel the connection of the sensibility with the realities of what is to live today.

Maria del Pilar Arrieta

Three Graces

I emphasize the glimpses from life, socio-culture, and the diaspora within the communities that I make part of in the contemporary culture. In this painting, I made a representation of a female portrait seemingly floats above the ocean and is submerged in a setting of patterns and blocks. I use references of modern geometric art, and the forms and shapes that inform the pre-Columbian art. I am narrating stories from experiences of the diaspora highlighting stories on life experiences within cultural tradition and how those experiences feel submerged in American culture. The ambiguity of ideas let me subvert some of the oppression from societal norms and the urge to talk about the nostalgic, and the unconscious to sense of awareness on the unsettling with the subject matter.

Forces of Nature

In my painting I overlap the figurative with geometric shapes to create landscapes that narrate stories from the present in contemporary culture. I am indexing the geometric shapes that appears in pre-Columbian art but also mirror the geometric abstraction from modern art. I am using the representation form of the female portrait to emphasize cultural identity through gender, race, and survivance; to open a conversation in the contemporary diaspora.

Girl in the Rose Pants

I like to portray the interaction between the figures and nature from life and this painting is a representation of a young male portrait capturing the moment and expression to pause and observe what is happening on life. In this painting, I am using the thematic of the young male figure to reflect on how they live in the modern world. The figure is immersed in a background of patterns and shapes to suggest the culture in which he live, and I use the language from folkloric tradition with modern to think about how we are inherited to the traditional way and living the contemporary culture.

Marcelo and the Soccer Ball

I am using the language of the modern art with cultural identity to merge narratives where the figurative and the geometric shapes are intersecting. My painting is a representation of the female figure within the gender role and its position in the Latino portrayal. The painting of a female talks about the youngest and the celebration of the liveliness. I am using the allegories from the Western renaissance of the goodness and the beauty to attempt to connect with the allures through the expressions of the self.

Young Lady Holding Leaves

I am using the metaphors to represent the how we feel with the interactions of human conditions and the unconscious. In this painting, I want to connect on human experiences, and the feelings of resilience, and vulnerability in a time of social change. The red chair denotes some aspect from live like being strong, bold or being supportive. I am emerging with the portrayal of the female figure to talk on the role of the women in the present. I am using the language from modern art using geometric bold shapes thinking on the space and time, but also in what we know as we have grown with our own culture and values

The Red Chair

This painting is a representation of two female portraitures overlapped in a set of patterns and geometric abstraction. In my work, I use the imagery from experiences and stories indexing traditional art and Western modern that can lead to a political conversation. My painting let me reflect about the agency in female portrayal in contemporary culture, within race, migration, and displacement.

Maria del Pilar Arrieta

collection: Abstract

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