iliana emilia García, "Sittings at Surf Point I," monoprint on paper, 30 x 22 in, $1,200

Artist Statement

At the core of my work is a poetic and emotional examination of the history of objects. I explore the value we assign to what we own from the places we come from and that which we keep through life’s journeys and crossroads. In my installations and paintings, there is an emphasis on the recurrence of objects telling evolving stories of resilience, and memory. I visually document things that may trigger and build up memory. I search for linkages of objects to places and emotions to convert them into storytellers in their own right. The presence of domestic objects, such as the chair, allows me to delve deeper into ancestral processes of survival, legacy, as well as dynamics between generations and places. The chair and text become instruments to relate to tradition, visual history as storytelling, remembrance, and commitment. I articulate the objects to recollect, preserve and reveal memory while reflecting on our basic need for emotional comfort. On canvas and in installations, my compositions emanate mappings of ancestry and personal history. They speak of human movements, migration, and constant evolution. They offer piles of stories to add to our present and create a chain of events, documentation, and intergenerational dynamics. They make us aware of the pockets of resilience among trauma and grief, and solidarity amid injustices. I may not change history, but I learn from it as the past of a present.

Bio

Born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, 1970

iliana emilia García is a painter, printmaker, and installation artist who works in big format drawings on canvas and paper, and escalating installations depicting her most iconic symbol: the chair. Her work often explores concepts of emotional history, collective and ancestral memory, and intimacy. A co-founder of the Dominican York Proyecto GRÁFICA, she holds an AAS from Altos de Chavón School of Design, a BFA from Parsons School of Design | The New School, and an MA from The Graduate Center, CUNY. García has been featured in solo and duo exhibitions at the Art Museum of the Americas, Taller Boricua, Hostos Community College, New York and others. She has participated in the IV Caribbean Biennial, Trienal Poli/Gráfica de San Juan, Latin American Biennial in New York, and international fairs. Her work is included in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, El Museo del Barrio, The Blanton Museum of Art, Texas, El Museo de Arte Moderno in Santo Domingo, and others.

An edited monograph on her work, "iliana emilia Garcia: the reason/ the word / the object," was published in 2020 by the Art Museum of the Americas, and edited by Olga U.Herrera, Phd. Her artist's papers can be found at the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

She currently lives in Brooklyn, NY.