Lucía Rodríguez
Lucía in her studio.
Lucía Rodríguez was born and raised in Santiago, Chile in a family that encouraged her love for art. In 2009 she obtained my BFA at Universidad Católica de Chile. In 2014 she moved to NYC to pursue my MFA at the New York Academy of Art graduating in 2016. Her work focuses on the ambiguity of space and the seductiveness of color. She creates spaces that build a bridge between representation and abstraction. Her main medium is color, as she thinks of her work as paintings, no matter the medium: painting, drawing, installation, etc. She finds inspiration in everyday patterns, textures, and spaces she photographs or sketches and uses as references when creating her work.
Can you tell us a bit about the process of making your work?
Right now, big part of my process has to do with channeling ideas or inspiration in a useful way so they can become actual artworks and not stay as just ideas. When I walk on the street I see subtle things that inspire me like a pattern, a color palette or the relationship between two shapes. I try to document these little pieces of inspiration by taking pictures or drawing or even writing some notes. I like to think all of these elements mix together in the back of my mind, and somehow, without knowing, I start piecing them together. Once I am at the studio, I try to sketch as many ideas as I have. Working on my iPad makes this process very easy because I can do it anywhere and I can create as many different files as I need. Then, I take some of these sketches and I refine them, using them as a starting point for paintings or drawings. As I work, I always try to allow myself to make changes because sometimes I start with an idea and then the work itself takes me into another direction. At the end, there is a lot of visual problem solving, back and forth, and that is what keeps my practice playful and enjoyable.
Lucía Rodríguez
Untitled, 2021
Color pencil on BFK Rives paper
22 x 30 inches each
What are you working on at the moment?
I am working on a series of drawings and paintings I like to think somehow coexist in the same world. For me, it is like I am developing a visual vocabulary that later I want to use to create more complex words or sentences. This vocabulary consists in exploring the relationship between abstraction and representation, and how I can create spaces that are ambiguous and evocative. By the end of the year I hope to have a strong body of work that somehow constitutes a world. Right now, I am workin on multiple pieces at the same time, because some of them I don’t know exactly how I am going to solve. This way I can take breaks from pieces that feel challenging without feeling defeated, and knowing I have other pieces I can make progress on and move forward.
It is interesting how both of your works chosen so heavily incorporate the grid. What do you think is the importance of the grid and its pattern or structure in your work?
I have always been interested in patterns, the idea of repetition and horror vacui. I find these very interesting abstract elements to work with to create an ambiguous sense of space, somehow flat and deep at the same time, something you could find, for example, in medieval tapestries.
I think the grid has been a way to go back to the basics, the most essential, as it is, in a way, the most basic form of pattern. At the same time it is also rigorous and predictable. Now that I think about it, I started to use the grid more and more in a period of my life that I was going through a lot of changes and feelings of uncertainty. I finished my MFA, I didn’t know if I was going to be able to stay in the US, I moved from NYC to Denver, I didn’t have a job… so maybe the use of the grid was a way to hold on to something predictable. As I started working with it I realized that the grid by definition is flat, and I wondered how, through color and composition, I could use it to create the illusion of space. I like the ambivalence it allows me to incorporate into my work. I am not interested in the grid as a way to restrain myself. I like it as a guide, but I want it to be in conversation with other elements as well.
Lucía Rodríguez
Untitled, 2019
Fabric and wood
Installation view
What are some references you draw upon in your work? Are there any themes in particular that you like to focus on when creating?
My main focus has to do with the experience of perception. We experience the world mostly through our eyes, seeing blobs of color and light. I care about the importance of this experience, and what happens before we translate it into language. I am interested in playing around the narrow space between representation and abstraction that perception offers. How color can be a thing by itself and how it can suggest space. For this, I find a lot of inspiration in the world that surrounds me.
I have also recently been interested in late medieval European paintings, and their ideas related to geometry as a middle point between the mundane and the divine. They designed most spaces using geometry as the basis, but at the same time everything was made in a way that the human hand was present.
I am interested in this kinds of concepts and how to create bridges connecting them.
Where are some of your favorite spaces that support contemporary art or design? Now that the art has an online presence has that changed?
In general, I have a soft spot in my heart for artist’s run spaces. I run a gallery in Denver with my husband in 2017-2019 called JuiceBox and I know the effort it entails. Currently I really enjoy what is being done by Ortega y Gasset, Miriam Gallery and 5-50 Gallery in NYC, and also Peep Projects in Philadelphia.
The pandemic for sure changed the focus and boosted the importance of online spaces, but also emphasized the question about how does art inhabit the virtual space. I think Arebyte Gallery has a very interesting program addressing this kind of questions, or Rhizome ArtBase as a virtual space that catalogues digital art. I think all this has also has helped artists that work digitally to have their work respected as much as artists that work with traditional mediums, and I see that as a positive change as we incorporate new technologies into the art conversation.
Lucía Rodríguez
Untitled, 2021
Oil on canvas
20 in ⌀ each
Lucía Rodríguez’s work is included in our show “The Alternative States,” May 3 - June 30, 2021. Visit her website or Instagram (@luciadivina) to see more of her work.