New Image Art is pleased to present Orange and Cinnamon, a solo exhibition by Monica Kim Garza on view through January 18th, 2020.
Garza’s art affirms that round brown women are autonomous desirable agents of strength. All the female figures share physical characteristics that represent the protagonist; Monica Kim Garza. Her portrayal of pleasure and desire through the female gaze defies the canon of Eurocentric art history and defines a new era of art where the unwavering essence of the unapologetic feminine is recognized. Garza’s’ paintings have an air of consciousness, as if aware of the viewer and their own status as female simulacrum. As the artist’s painterly robust females of color thrive fearlessly, they become aspirational reflections of the viewer’s desire, whereas the viewer sees themselves as Garza’s vivacious characters. Painted with seemingly quickly paced, equally urgent and impatient, gestural brushstrokes, the female figures and surrounding environments are rendered with just enough detail to set the imagination free.
Orange and Cinnamon is an ode to Garza’s Mexican ancestry. Inspired by the tales of the painter’s father, the exhibition takes root in Vaquero (Spanish for cowboy) culture. Shaped by the land, the Mexican cowboy traditions influenced the origin of cowboys, and were known for their horsemanship and rope skills. The hard-riding vaqueros controlled chaos through the early Mexican techniques for handling cattle, which can be tracked throughout the modern livestock industry. This culture stems from a complex history of colonization between, Spain, Mexico, and America, which correlates to the artist mixed race identity. As an American, whose mother is Korean and whose father is Mexican, Garza represents the liminal nature of a multiracial identity and the histories that shape her individuality. Garza embeds her characters into the traditional Vaquero narrative and re-contextualizes her curvaceous figures through a contemporary lens.
Following in the vain of Courbet (an inspiration to the artist), Garza confronts class and status by depicting contemporary figures of size and of color taking pleasure in the vices of daily life. Her full-figured women of different shades of mahogany baring breasts, nalgas, and chichos reflect the true shape, size, and attitude of a radical woman, who is not afraid of indulging in food, dancing, and sex. “Orange and Cinnamon” pays homage to mescal, the Mexican elixir that legend has it was made for the gods. Fueled by independence and liquid courage, Garza’s fearless and playful figures push the boundaries in class, race, and sex, painting the very core of self-empowerment and joy.
