Ana garces kiley. Veiled Lady (in bloom). 2024. ink on lutrador with thread, cotton, and acrylic base. 17”x12” diameter
"The shift in my work to transparent materials was in direct response to feeling like the content wasn’t being served by the opacity of traditional materials".
- Ana Garces Kiley
In her works Ana Garces Kiley creates a safe space for the viewer to ponder traditionally taboo themes within our society. In her pieces, the artist purposely omits the definition of shapes, which gives the viewer the freedom to create their own interpretation and meaning.
Join us for this November’s Q&A with Garces Kiley shares her current inspirations and discusses her motifs for using specific materials in her work.
Ana garces kiley. Birthing (C). 2017. ink on etched denril, red mirror plexiglass. 12” x 12”
One reason I find your practice so interesting is how layering and positioning of materials convey a complexity in both content and form. Are you aiming to be unsettling to your viewers with this complexity? Or is this a collateral effect of your creative process?
Ana Garces Kiley: Good question. The shift in my work to transparent materials was in direct response to feeling like the content wasn’t being served by the opacity of traditional materials. The translucent and transparent nature of the sheer materials that I use parallels the themes I’m interested in exploring by creating mystery through a feel of weightlessness, layering and seeing through.
So maybe the answer is both. The themes of death, rebirth, origin and desire do unsettle us all in one way or another and so I find that these materials can somehow bring us closer to experiencing the imagery as an encounter and not necessarily looking for meaning.
Ana garces kiley. Entre el Aliento y Saliva V. 2009. Acrylite stretcher, Acrylic on metallic, sheer voiles. 60”x50”x3"
I read that some of your "Midnight Son" pieces were inspired by Sylvia Plath's poem, "Mirror." Do you often draw inspiration from literature? What other art forms inspire you when producing your work?
AG: I love good art in all of its forms. Literature, in particular poetry, allows me to linger on certain images and helps me to then listen and generate my own. These images can and do come from film and music. I’m a huge fan of David Lynch and Alejandro Jodorowsky. Inspiration comes from the feeling of their work. I have a whole series of paintings inspired by one line in a song by the Mexican rapperos Control Machete that says, “Entre el aliento y saliva”, between the breath and saliva. I am completely fascinated by that in-between-ness.
In your pieces with The Camp gallery, you feature animal shapes interacting with human shapes. Is there a specific reason behind your choice of animals? Do you feel that certain animals better convey the message you intend? Why?
AG: Nature is also a great inspiration, I think for most artists. And animals are that “other”, the foil which helps us give meaning to our lives. We can reason, they cannot. We can feel, they cannot. But I think they must contain something else. And so, animals exist, mostly disembodied, within this world of the magical in the mundane, as keepers of secrets. They contribute to the sensation of Encounter in the work.
Ana garces kiley. Midnight Son (hawk). 2017. Ink on lutrador, acrylic rods on poplar. 20'' diameter.
I'm interested in exploring your motive for using transparency and opacity. Given canvas's opaque nature and your comment on your artist statement about "rejecting the traditional patriarchy of the canvas", do you associate opacity with masculinity and transparency with femininity? Is this a recurring topic in your work?
AG: Thanks for holding me accountable for this one! It’s a big statement to make, I know. Yes, I do associate opacity with masculinity and transparency with femininity. I am referring to the masculine and feminine energy and NOT to the male and female sex. I believe we all have both of these energies within us. Traditional artwork, meaning oil paintings on canvas, comes with a historical baggage of masculine energy.
I think this is why when I saw pieces like Robert Rauschenberg’s fabric works from the ’70’s and Sigmar Polke’s use of transparent fabrics to question the materiality of painting, I felt embraced and let in. So, now, in my work, I realize that it is a dance between opacity and translucency, that one makes the other what it is, similar to the masculine and feminine energies.
Ana garces kiley. The Eternal Idol. 2012. Acrylite stretcher, acrylic and lutradur on lutradur stretched on opposite sides, acrylite insert, red mirrored applique, white acrylite frame, and monofilament. 22” x 18” x 3”
Your work often blends painting and sculpture, opacity and transparency. How do you feel these mediums and qualities support the ideas you convey in your work?
AG: I began painting traditionally on canvas and soon found transparency to convey these more abstract or mystical ideas. Eventually, through layering, I felt the need for dimensionality. I find myself thinking about time and space and how bound we are to this 3 dimensional plane. And yet we are such transient beings. Which, by the way, is one of the main reasons why the fly exists in my work - as a symbol of our ephemeral nature.
So I am exploring something like 2.5 D, where the image is 2D but it incorporates a real life element. What does it do to the experience? Is it believable? Does it have to be?
What ideas or global events are currently inspiring your creativity?
AG: I think war is an energy that affects us all, sooner or later; the policies, the images, the feeling of hopelessness. I am working on a piece inspired by Joan of Arc. It came very intuitively, as most of my work does, but it stems from looking back in history at a woman who listened to the voices, to the “witch” within and fought for truth and justice. These are tough times where “truth “ and “justice” are up for debate and it’s so easy to forget that these words are our individual daily responsibility no matter who we are, where we are, or what we do.
Ana garces kiley. La Gran Mama (Pachamama). 2022. Ink on lutrador with damask cotton. 40”x60” with 15’ draping voile, ceiling to floor installation