Antonia Guerrero Art

Artist's Statement I have always been fascinated by the human figure. In my painting and drawing, I have evolved a very personal expression of realism, inspired in part by Renaissance tradition and by the Mexican art I grew up with. My fascination with the human figure also extends to movement, to my work in dance, performance and video art. And somehow, in focusing so specifically on a realistic expression of the figure, I have found myself profoundly influenced by the surreal. As a Mexican, I have been strongly influenced by a tradition that makes the spiritual, the duality of nature, and the magical a part of everyday life. I grew up in Mexico City, but in years of travel and exploration throughout the country, I discovered that there are a multiplicity of realities. I have, for nearly 30 years, been involved in what is called the Danza de Concheros, a ceremonial form of ritual Mexican dance. Originally a pre-Columbian art form, later an agrarian and working class expression, the Danza has offered me a unique view of the connection between human life and the cosmos. It is this insight I struggle to express in my work, whether painting or performance. I also feel a strong affinity for the representational language and the technical refinement in painting and drawing that emerged during the Renaissance. The quality of a painted surface in oil, egg-tempera or encaustic is incomparable in achieving a richness, depth and luminosity that presents an almost photographic and tangible sense of the real. These themes also find expression in portraits, which have always been an important part of my work. Whether self-portraits or portraits of the young or the old, indigenous subjects or urban contemporaries, these paintings and drawings have allowed me to explore a range of recurring ideas and motifs. Typically, the figure is meticulously rendered and placed in a setting that suggests an internal or spiritual atmosphere. I like to play on the dichotomy between the representational and hard-edged, abstract forms which suggest surreal architectural spaces. Performance satisfies a strong need to move, to move in space as well as paint. My performances typically combine movement, ritual, media, lighting and props in works that explore themes of identity and cross-cultural issues. At times, my performance pieces echo symbols from my painting: conch shells, feathers and swaths of fabric crumpled in folds, tied in knots or enveloping the body. I am fascinated by the crossing of borders, whether cultural or material, to be able to flow from the pre-Columbian to the streets of New York, from hand-ground pigments to digital images.