My figurative work is one which is abstract. My images of figures are really images of subjectivity and relations in a double bind. I pay attention to conjunctions of the essence of the singular subject and its social reality: what is felt to be a true image of the thing and discourses in which the thing is invested; subjective and objective; affect and language; sensibility and information; discretion and expression; and the unknowable and the known. A double bind then also contains time in that the figure or image is always here and at the same time missing or to come. It is a world full of tensions and confusions.* By thinking about a double bind, I am also thinking about painting.
*A world which is a double bind calls for negotiation and vulnerability, for problems within it can never be resolved. Only, I pursue through each work, each world, an ontological argument for the existence of a singular being in immanent possibilities. What enables the subject to exist in ‘immanent possibilities’ is the power of vagueness produced by and contained in a double bind, which is precisely the reason I cannot give up language, the thing’s opaque, social appearance despite my organic tendency toward affect and realization. Plus, appearance is unequivocally linked to the ontology of the thing and not apart from it: in my opinion, any appearance is our chance at believing that a thing exists at all and that a thing ‘is’ many things including ‘social’ – knowing, maybe not, but a chance at believing, yes. It is in a double bind then that we can experience an epistemic shift toward deterritorialization. In other words, we would have the chance to rethink our notion of subjectivity and get to know that we, each of us a singular being, are essential and at the same time social in countless ways; and we would each be an active participant in regaining our human being in the contemporary world and not a passive consumer of given discourses.
*A world which is a double bind calls for negotiation and vulnerability, for problems within it can never be resolved. Only, I pursue through each work, each world, an ontological argument for the existence of a singular being in immanent possibilities. What enables the subject to exist in ‘immanent possibilities’ is the power of vagueness produced by and contained in a double bind, which is precisely the reason I cannot give up language, the thing’s opaque, social appearance despite my organic tendency toward affect and realization. Plus, appearance is unequivocally linked to the ontology of the thing and not apart from it: in my opinion, any appearance is our chance at believing that a thing exists at all and that a thing ‘is’ many things including ‘social’ – knowing, maybe not, but a chance at believing, yes. It is in a double bind then that we can experience an epistemic shift toward deterritorialization. In other words, we would have the chance to rethink our notion of subjectivity and get to know that we, each of us a singular being, are essential and at the same time social in countless ways; and we would each be an active participant in regaining our human being in the contemporary world and not a passive consumer of given discourses.
Current and Upcoming
2025de boer gallery, Los Angeles, California
October 17-December 13, 2024
Jasmine Baetz and Alessia Lupo Cecchet: Special Archives (curatorial), Sprague Gallery, Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, California
Recent Exhibitions
2024Tide Pools (group), Nous-ance at TRYST by the Torrance Art Museum, Torrance, California
Play It as It Lays (group), de boer gallery, Los Angeles, California
Vague Domains (group), Alt Projects, Arcadia, California
At Home (group), IKEA residency at Surely Work Studios, Los Angeles, California
GLAMFA (group), California State University Long Beach, Long Beach, California
2023
Daydream Jelly (group), la BEAST gallery, Los Angeles, California
Long Day (solo), Peggy Phelps Gallery, Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, California
Recent Publications
New Paintings by Iva Gueorguieva – and Painting (essay). Julia. June 28, 2024.Reading Marx: History of a Young Artist in Marxist Terms (essay). em-dash literary journal, Issue 2: Youth. May 10, 2024.
Recent Curatorial
2023Jonathan Jackson (Tierra del Sol): Lines, Sprague Gallery, Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, California
Charles Ryan Becker, Eric Arneson Blair, Soo Bin Cho, Jonah Ifcher, Kaitlyn Penchina, Bella Pettengill, Caelan Reeves, Waverly Wang, Jessica Yim: Appearance of the Body, Sprague Gallery, Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, California
E. Bacon-Gershman: Unlocking the Secrets of Pollen, Sprague Gallery, Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, California
Meghna Pamula: AAAAAANNND, Sprague Gallery, Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, California
Vivian Monteiro: Extensible, Sprague Gallery, Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, California