maría
I paint, sew, cut and put stuff together.
María Garcés (b.2002, Medellín, Colombia), is a painter and mixed media artist currently based in between Savannah, GA and Medellín, Colombia. She’s currently finishing her BFA in Painting at The Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah and expects to graduate in 2025.
Within her work, Garcés delves into her cultural upbringing and experiences in Colombia, analyzing the layers of identity and the formation of perception through memories, and how these ones react to the society that currently surrounds her. Through craft, painting and rearranging media, María mirrors the internal conversations with herself, pushing the boundaries between abstraction and figuration as the key to exploring emotional vulnerability through her work.
statement
"I’m constantly questioning myself all the time– why do I react to the environment that surrounds me in this specific way? What do these responses say about me, or who I am as a person?
By dissecting my intercultural experiences as a Colombian woman, I’ve developed an interest in understanding the layers of my identity and how individual perception is formed. What role does culture and memory play in shaping our understanding of who we are? Is it a justification for patriotic attachment, or part of an ongoing obsession of feeling belonging?
Through craft, painting, cutting, and rearranging media, I mirror internal conversations, pushing the boundaries between abstraction and figuration as I explore emotional vulnerability and discomfort. Discomfort to chance, spontaneity and detachment by opening up the creative process to a cycle of control and release. "