ARCHIVE: EXHIBITORS 2009

Maria Isabel Parra / COLIBRISUR ART PROJECT

Maria Isabel Parra: From the series "Ciclo de Mutaciones", No 1 / Mixed media on canvas, 90x90 cm, 2007
Maria Isabel Parra: From the series "Ciclo de Mutaciones", No 1 / Mixed media on canvas, 90x90 cm, 2007

Maria lsabel Parra
www.mariaisabelparra.com
www.colibrisur.net
> Information Colibrisur Art Project

Art Statement
“My artistic interests have revolved around the natural, social, economic and cultural relationship man has with his environment, none of these aspects separated from the others, or from the evolution of every individual in society. In this way, my artwork is an attempt to understand the society that I am part of. I question myself about ways of life, its negative as well as positive characteristics, and the symbols it both reflects and holds, at the same time permitting myself to be fascinated and infuriated by the great contrasts and contradictions that it confines.
After living in Hong Kong for almost six years, an experience which has significantly influenced my artistic life and my artwork, I can confirm how interesting it is, precisely thanks to all those immense social-cultural and environmental contrasts and contradictions. It is a mixture of cultures, mistrustfully holding onto many aspects of its deepest culture, while at the same time integrating some aspects of western culture.
Those abstractions of the city I paint are the symbol of the societies we build today, contradictory and related, beautiful and terrifying, vertical and fully packed. Societies with huge inequalities, where individuals affected by extreme poverty and the fragility of their daily lives, coexist with individuals who live in opulent wealth, and monopolize economic and political power”.
when I was at school I used to draw on the desk...those individual seats with a small foldable table...they have a smooth white cover, just right for drawing on with a pencil...and the quality of the drawings depended on how interested I was in the lesson...at that time my skill with colour were not yet developed…
My artistic interests have revolved around the natural, social, economic and cultural relationship man has with his environment, none of these aspects separated from the others, or from the evolution of every individual in society. In this way, my artwork is an attempt to understand the society that I am part of. I question myself about ways of life, its negative as well as positive characteristics, and the symbols it both reflects and holds, at the same time permitting myself to be fascinated and infuriated by the great contrasts and contradictions that it confines.
After living in Hong Kong for almost six years, an experience which has significantly influenced my artistic life and my artwork, I can confirm how interesting it is, precisely thanks to all those immense social-cultural and environmental contrasts and contradictions. It is a mixture of cultures, mistrustfully holding onto many aspects of its deepest culture, while at the same time integrating some aspects of western culture. However, neither the remains of Confucianism nor Taoist philosophies have been able to stop the growth of capitalism, overpopulation or pollution, which could look contradictory. In a way, Hong Kong is like the beauty and the beast in one.
It is in this way that those abstractions of the city I paint are the symbol of the societies we build today, contradictory and related, beautiful and terrifying, vertical and fully packed. Societies with huge inequalities, where individuals affected by extreme poverty and the fragility of their daily lives, coexist with individuals who live in opulent wealth, and monopolize economic and political power. And if a big part of my artworks is inspired by this Chinese cosmopolitan city, it is precisely because of what it symbolizes, allowing me to reflect on it.
Like the city itself, iconography and religious rituals that inundate the daily life of this city, have captivated my curiosity and have showed me how our ways of life could be quite opposite to our ideals or our “philosophy” of life. Therefore, I try to understand a little about the influence of Chinese philosophy throughout time, and the symbols I observe in daily life. I try to construct my own book of changes, questioning myself about contemporary values and necessities of today’s society through the comprehension of its dualities and contradictions.
The use of acrylics and oil-based painting on wood or canvas allows me to make a good combination of colours and textures, and also a good combination between controlled and very free and expressive brush strokes, allowing unexpected results in forms and colours.
Basic colours rule my paintings, which I try to make contrast with some secondary colours; I also play with very bright and warm colours contrasted with different tones of blacks, greys and whites. I emphasize the use of red, not only as a symbol of happiness or fortune in the Chinese culture, but also to stress the socio-cultural power that societies sometimes represent.
I also have begun to introduce golden and silver colours. Not only are those colours present in Buddhist and Taoist offerings, but we also find them in the clothes and accessories that people wear. Those colours attract attention and also attract fortune, this is one of the reasons why gold and silver are very precious gifts.
With time my paintings have become charged with textures. Glazes and layers of colours, thus allowing us to see, to hint or to cover, playing with the observer’s glance, moving it away, or keeping it closer to the painting to discover different kind of details, meaning those things we can perceive, those things which need to be seen, or those which are just mimicked in the society, to discover contrasts, symbols, crowdedness …
Circles, fishes, squares, and curved and straight lines made by splashing oil paint on the canvas, recur in my paintings, creating a language of its own which suggest the cycles of life, nature, and also suggest some abstractions of the city in itself, such as the window.
My paintings are more and more integrated by diptychs or polyptichs, suggesting dualities or numbers which are symbols in the Chinese cultures, such as the numbers 4, 8 or 64. In addition to that, writing is more and more present in the paintings, attracting attention to key words related to each other, and also emphasizing the importance of writing in both art, and Chinese
culture. Some of the words or sentences come from the news or documentaries that I read or hear on the radio or the press; some of them can come out of very actual news, articles by Amnesty International, or independent press, that deal with subjects less covered by general press ; but they can simply come out of the composition of sentences that emerge in my head while trying to “compose” small poems.
Number 8 is a “lucky” number in the Chinese culture. So taking account of that, I began a series of paintings integrating this number: eight fishes; eight paintings and also the eight more important things throughout the life of an individual. So, in a play-oriented way, I began to ask my friends and relatives to write on a piece of paper divided in eight, which were the eight most important things throughout the life of a person. Quickly I noticed they had the same problem I had when I wanted to sum up that matter on eight words. Therefore, I decided to make the same exercise with 64 characteristics and I did a painting depicting those characteristics on 64 squares each one of them integrated by groups of words, colours and textures, every one of them related to the words. At that moment was born a series of paintings titled “cycle of mutations”, which asks ourselves about who we are and what is our role in society.
The format of my most recent paintings presented as curtains (without stretchers and held by a tube) alludes to traditional Chinese painting on one hand, and on the other hint of a curtain which lets one see or glimpse. It also suggests the curtain of humidity and of pollution that constantly covers this city. But it is also reminds that window, which allows us to be open to the world, or ignore it.
Maria Isabel Parra

MARIA ISABEL PARRA
Colombian-French visual artist, born in 1972 in Medellin, Colombia. She has been living and working as a full-time artist in Hong Kong for the last six years.

EDUCATION:
At the moment: Completing a Master's Degree in Economy,
Culture and Chinese Society by 2010
Universidad de Alcalá de Henares - Madrid
Degree in Education majoring in Art
Universidad Bolivariana - Medellin
Degree in Visual Arts
Escuela Popular de Artes – Medellin

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS:
2008: Skylights & Voiles - Chamber of Commerce- Medellin
2008: Salón Fernando Botero, Bogota
2008: Watchdog Art Show - 10 Chancery Lane Gallery – Hong Kong
2008: A close relationship with the space Exhibition – Sala de Arte Comunidad, Medellin
2007: International Florence Contemporary Art Bienniale - Florence, Italy
2007: Colibrisur Artists Exhibition – El Tablado Theatre – Medellin
2007: Casa Tomada Exhibition – Plazarte Casa Patrimonial – Medellin
2007: Naturaleza Gestual – Sheraton Hotel – Medellin
2007: Colombian Colours – PROYECTO UNO - San Ignacio Cloister – Medellin
2007: Dicciones – Palace Of Culture – Medellin
2006: Talleres de Artes Plásticas y Visuales de Medellin - Cerro Nutibara Gallery - Medellin
2006: 6/12 - Pontificia Bolivariana University - Medellin
2006: Latin American Painting and Photo Exhibition – UNESCO Centre - Macau
2005: Mexico and Colombia in the same tree– Painting Exhibition – State of the Arts Gallery – Hong Kong
2005: Colombian Colours – PROYECTO UNO – State of the Arts Gallery – Hong Kong
2005: Lantau Arts Exhibition - Discovery Bay Office Centre – Hong Kong
2004: Under the Same Sun - Latin America Festival - Hong Kong Cultural Centre - Hong Kong
2000-2001: Various performances in different parts of the city and the forest - Medellin
2000: 6th Biennial of Graphic Art –Chamber of commerce – Medellin
1999: Spatial intervention with the group of artists Transeuntes - Desfile de Feria de las Flores – Medellin

DISTINCTIONS:
2008: Selected for the Fernando Botero Salon, Bogotá.
2007: Selected for the International Florence Contemporary Art Biennale - Florence, Italy
2005: 4th place in the cultural promotion category in the III Call for cultural proposals – Secretariat for Civil Culture and the Mayor’s office of Medellin – with the project: Proyecto Uno-Colombian Colours – Medellin