KATHRYN CAMICIA
Desert Rose, 2024, Flashe and oil paint, 30” x 40”
Untitled #2, 2023, Flashe and oil paint, 30” x 40”
Untitled #3, 2023, Latex, Flashe, and oil paint, 24” x 36”
Nature Morte, 2024, Latex, Flashe, and oil paint, 18” x 14”
Untitled #4, 2023, Latex, Flashe, and oil paint, 24” x 36”
ARTIST STATEMENT
My paintings are primarily about the sensuality of paint. I like to push materials and their properties to create a new visual experience, one that is ineffable, evocative, unpredictable. I want the viewer to have a sense of surprise, a desire to physically connect (through touch) and an awakening to obscure forms of beauty.
Abstract expressionism has been the most consistent influence in my work. The combination/tension of spontaneity and deliberate effort, the freedom to not represent or depict anything and the push for the unexplored all find their way into my work.
In the past few years, I have been exploring the artistic culture of Japan and its emphasis on the feeling of harmony and oneness with nature. Along with the concept of wabi-sabi, which focuses on the transfiguration of the commonplace, I found a way to use my commitment to abstraction and improvisation. My landscapes are of earth, water, and sky from various perspectives, reflecting their impermanence as well as a feeling timelessness.
I have spent years conducting experiments with ingredients and surfaces. The process I use for these paintings includes pouring and combining oil and water-based latex paint and solvents. Both chance and time play a role in the outcome. Except for the dyptichs, all my work is in a square format, which seems to fit our pixel time. Because the materiality of paint is my primary interest I let it merge and emerge with as little limit as possible. Hence no frames.