Louise (Big, Black, Gold) 2024
50 x 60 cm
Acrylic, inks and pigments on canvas panel
Project Statement: García started this Heroes series in 2023 to highlight the bonds with generations of women artists and the specific poetic language and novel experimentation that each have pursued, opening new pathways to explore and build on.This series of acrylic and mixed media paintings conveys, through gestural mark making evoking bonds and combinations of colours referencing in an oblique manner their artistic practice and life, a portal to celebrate and vindicate the lives and contributions of the heroes.Words, often direct quotes or joking references lead to questions and invite further exploration, becoming secret calligraphies were the quotes are no longer recognisable and only the heartbeat remains.A combination of water colour and acrylic inks, raw pigment powder, charcoal and oil sticks are used to create expressive marks, some of which are borrowed words.Layers are often visible, as the works have gone through several stages in their“construction”
Tamara, 2024
50 x 60 cm
Mixed media: Acrylic and pigments on canvas panel
Paula 2024
50 x 60 cm
Mixed media: Acrylic, charcoal, inks and pigments on canvas panel
Bonds, 2024
50 x 60 cm
Mixed media: Acrylic, inks and collage on canvas panel
Artist Statement: Mercedes García is a Brussels, Belgium-based, Spanish artist known for her abstract visual art practice. Interwoven with her art practice, García is a diplomat committed to the European integration cause. Current events often appear in her work in an inconspicuous way, alongside questions of identity and respect for our planet. Her practice revolves around the interaction of words with images, as expressions of contemporary cross-examinations between her diplomatic and creative carriers. Her work has been exhibited in Brussels and Washington DC. She recently returned to Europe after 5 years in the USA.