Pictorial Fantasies

Artemisa Gallery is thrilled to announce the second Gallery show with Rebeca Mendoza and Valeria Vilar, Pictorial Fantasies. The exhibition will be on view from April 7th to May 14th, 20016.

Mendoza was inspired by the famed Argentine author Julio Cortazar for her series of monoprints featured in the exhibition. The artist's energetic gestures, symbols and recurring images of the game Hopscotch, reflect Cortazar's style of writing that recorded accounts of everyday life and free associations. Like Cortazar, Mendoza plays with simultaneity, superimposition, and ambiguity in her work as she goes through the stages of printmaking and painting. The artist sets out to entice a direct dialogue with the audience only to let personal emotion arising from the work lead her mark making, until each different situation becomes harmonious to complete the whole.

Similarly, Vilar's lush gestures of colorful paint and chalk on paper weave between figuration and abstraction to engage her audience in a playful back-and-forth between realities. On the one hand, Vilar's fairy tail landscapes lend insight to her art making process inspired by memories and images of tales, dreams, and recondite places of imagination. On the other, her work and its intent can just as easily disappear to leave a space for the reconstruction of each spectator, freeing his or her imagination to complete the story.

In conversation with one another, both Mendoza and Vilar have created a fantastic world of color and gesture that indulges the imagination with a glimpse into their own. In turn, viewers become part of the artists' interior dialogue as the opportunity to share feelings, thoughts, and ideas connect one another like pieces of the same puzzle. The experience of such intimate communication builds upon the notion that personal dialogue ultimately informs universal concepts more directly than we could ever imagine.

Rebecca Mendoza received her Bachelor's Degree with a focus on painting from National School of Fine Arts in Argentina, Prilidiano Pueyrredón. Since finishing her formal training as a painter, Mendoza has continued her practice while establishing herself as a teacher within her own studio, opened once in Buenos Aires from 1990 - 1994, and again in New York City from 2000 - 2011. Mendoza has been widely exhibited across the United States and Argentina, and her work is part of private collections in Argentina, Canada, United States, Switzerland, France, Spain, Peru, Puerto Rico, and Chile.

Valeria Vilar received her Bachelor's Degree in Architecture from the University of Buenos Aires in 2009. Originally an architect, Vilar has recently devoted her time fully to the visual arts. In 2011, Vilar was selected to be part of the Artist Program of the University of Torcuato Di Tella, which was led by the artist Jorge Macchi. Vilar has attended multiple visual arts workshops, and in 2013, Vilar worked with the artists Elisa Estrada and Florencia Lenzi to co-found CasaPlaza - a visual arts school for children.