On View November 5–December 4, 2022 | Southern Idiom Gallery
SECCA's Southern Idiom exhibition series continues with Black Tears, a collection of new paintings by artist Aimée García. An opening reception with the artist will be held from 1–4pm on Saturday, November 5. Admission is free, with a suggested $10 donation.
ARTIST STATEMENT
The female portrait and the self-portrait have been a constant in my work. I'm not interested in talking about my own life, rather about the universal feminine experience. The work is an invitation to reflect on life, history, gender contradictions, memories, and the political and social environment by means of an existential discourse with multiple implications.
Although painting has almost always been a protagonist in my work, I have always sought to imbricate other materials (hair, threads, metal, stones, newspaper and others) that allow me to establish a symbolic game, where the traditional and the contemporary interact.
In the case of objects and installations, I seek to establish a game with the meaning of the materials and the objects, by creating a dialogue between the act of intervention and the material subjected to this intervention. For example, with embroidered plates and saucepans, I have used everyday objects to create a discourse about our cultural, political and social environment.
The title of this series is based on the classic Cuban bolero-son Lágrimas Negras-Black Tears (1930)
I appropriate the title of this song to represent in a poetic way the reality of the Cuban people who struggle in the midst of a repressive system, between memory, precariousness and uprooting due to migration, a reality that can be representative of other contexts in similar conditions.
ARTIST BIO
Aimée García was born in Matanzas, Cuba in 1972. She currently lives and works in Winston Salem, NC. She graduated from the Higher Institute of Art Havana in 1996.
Her work has been exhibited in different countries such as the United States, Mexico, Germany, England, Spain, and Italy among others.
She has participated in several international biennials such as the 57th Venice Biennale, Biennial of Havana, Biennial of Kwangju, Biennial of Cuenca, and Biennial of Painting of the Caribbean and Central America.
Her works are in public collections such as the National Museum of Fine Arts, Havana, ASU Art Museum Arizona, Neighborhood Museum New York, University of Virginia Art Museum Virginia, Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, University of Oregon Eugene, Museum of Finest Cuban Arts, MOFCA Vienna Austria, The Farber Cuban Avant-Garde Collection, USC Fisher Museum of Art Los Angeles, and Pe´rez Art Museum Miami (PAMM).
About Southern Idiom
SECCA's Southern Idiom exhibition series launched in 2017 as a platform for elevating and celebrating the work of Winston-Salem artists. In contrast to many exhibitions at SECCA, works on view in Southern Idiom are available for purchase. Aimee Garcia's exhibition marks the 31st installment of the series, whose alumni artists include Sharon Hardin, Terri Dowell-Dennis, Ashley Johnson, Frank Campion, Mona Wu, Owens Daniels, Jessica Singerman, Leo Rucker, Kevin Calhoun, Paul Travis Phillips, Laura Lashley, Sam "The Dot Man" McMillan, and others.