Veronica Ibargüengoitia: Fractured Light • Paweł Dutkiewicz: Afterimage
Anya Tish Gallery is excited to introduce Mexico City-born, Houston-based artist, Veronica Ibargüengoitia in her inaugural solo exhibition with the gallery, Fractured Light. Sharing the gallery space with Ibargüengoitia is Polish painter Paweł Dutkiewicz with four new paintings from his ongoing series Afterimage.
Veronica Ibargüengoitia works in oil on canvas in both, two and three dimensional formats. Her paintings and objects are inspired by photographs of windows she collects from around the globe, and considers as views from a private space to the outside world. By reducing the image to lines and angles the artists creates images of architectural spaces that connect the physical world to the nonphysical.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Veronica Ibargüengoitia’s large-format paintings unfold in layers, which she imagines the viewer entering, step by step, finding pleasure in the conundrum behind each geometric form, while the three dimensional works create an illusionary space that projects from the wall with sharp angles and hidden spaces, unfolding and beckoning the viewer to discover what is behind each abstract corner.
"My interest is the interaction of the image with the built-out form to render both illusionary and actual space. I want the work to be seen by the viewer from several angles, freeing the form to shift according to one’s position to the object. Shadows are suggested by the geometric depth and at times the painted illusion of perspective hence creating ambiguity to the spatial relations within the piece.” - Veronica Ibargüengoitia, 2020
Born in Mexico City, Veronica Ibargüengoitia currently lives and works in Houston, TX. Ibargüengoitia was part of the Glassell School of Arts fellow Block XX program of The Museum of Fine Arts Houston, and is a recipient of the 2020 Houston Artadia Fellows Award. Ibargüengoitia has a Certificate in Painting and Sculpture from the Glassell School of Arts MFAH, and a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Design by Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally in numerous juried exhibitions, and can be found in private and corporate collections in Texas and Mexico. Ibargüengoitia is a member of the Visual Arts Alliance and the Latin American Women Artists in Houston where she serves on the board.
Paweł Dutkiewicz continues to strip away all figurative representation, communicating atmospheric light through the application and composition of color. Layers of beeswax and paint saturate each canvas to create nuances of tone that emerge as ethereal, floating spaces of color. The subtle shift of color in the palate of each work creates a quiet luminosity that is akin to an afterimage.
When viewed together, the paintings, according to the artist: “evolve into a place where the space itself gains significance while the paintings, acting as windows become the source of ‘painted light’. These sensations foster a contemplative experience and encourage the viewer to expand outward and travel inward, moving simultaneously toward an understanding of the space and light in which the paintings inhabit while forging a quiet and powerful personal awareness”.
Based in Kraków, Poland, Paweł Dutkiewicz is a professor of Art at the University of Science and Art in Katowice, Poland. His work has been shown in several important institutions, among them: Zacheta National Art Gallery, Warsaw, Poland; Galeria Foksal, Warsaw, Poland; The Schindler Factory, Krakow, Poland; Galeria Krzysztofory (established by Tadeusz Kantor in 1957), Krakow, Poland; Lichtblicke Institute of Polish Culture in Berlin, Germany; and Baltic Gallery of Contemporary Art, Slupsk, Poland. Dutkiewicz is a grant recipient of the Polish Ministry of Art and Culture, and his work can be found in numerous corporate and private collections across Europe and the United States.