Liz Guzman’s Kitsch Collection
written by AAC Marketing and Development Intern Erica Sobers
Fall SOLOS continues through Sunday, but when it closes, it’ll be gone forever! Read about Liz Guzman’s exhibition (one of seven in our main show), then stop by AAC to see it all! Admission is always free!
Using a mix of acrylic, plastic, and puff paint, Liz Guzman’s latest untitled exhibition brings a tropical, feminine flair to our Smith Gallery.
The collection offers many stand out pieces from Hearts and Daggers, inspired by the selection at a nail salon, to the statement piece in the middle of the gallery which uses palm tree leaves [faux] and sand.
The collection’s small pieces are tied together with a few large canvas’ one of which reads “Esos Besos,” Spanish for those kisses. The many textures and neon colors make for a refreshing and visually appealing display of art. Guzman shares what inspired this body of work and what she hopes viewers will take away from it.
Why and how did this body of work begin to form in your mind?
My work in respect to landscape has been an ongoing series of paintings and smaller works centered in material focus. I work with what I know, and in some ways, I’m trying to rediscover the place or things I use as subject matter. So the work does not come from a predetermined idea. However, if I were to name the overarching themes, I guess it would be synthetic feminine beauty, kitsch, and arousing sunsets.
What inspired this body of work?
I am inspired greatly by television. I love the concept of nature as a supernatural entity of its own: an allegorical setting of psychological darkness as an actual physical plane, as in from the show “Twin Peaks.”
A professor at college once told me that I’m an abstract painter trapped in a figurative painters body.
I am also a feminist, and I care deeply about the expression of femininity and the power it has in equal social value to masculinity.
What do you want the audience to take away from this work?
I would hope that the paintings would invoke the kind of creepiness and total fixation that you might experience while watching a heat lightning storm in total darkness.
In three sentences or less, tell us about your process.
My studio practice is more about the synthesizing of objects I collect or what visually appeals to me, in order to realize a more collective meaning.
I like to combine concurrent sensations, sensuality of synthetic materials/ gradient landscapes along with darker nuance that hints at the unknown.
A professor at college once told me that I’m an abstract painter trapped in a figurative painters body.
