The Walter Art Gallery was pleased to present a solo exhibition of new works by Phoenix-based artist Charmagne Vasquez. This collection of paintings and sculptures are narrations from the artist’s life in the last few years. They reflect time spent in the natural spaces of the Sonoran Desert, Coconino Forest, and Vashon Island, WA. Vasquez endeavors to understand the web of life, personal human life stories and the constant pulse of evolution. She channels thoughts about nature as a wondrously mysterious hivemind of energy and interconnected species, all of which is in imminent need of our protection. Her spontaneous paintings are diverse close-up and panoramic terrains. She rawly integrates traditional and non-traditional materials: thick impasto, oil pastels, pencil, assemblages, mesquite pods, wool, wire, twine, canna lilies... The artist is also thrilled to present her newest experimental direction in sculpture: these are small, figurative works which embody human vulnerability, and a complex array of emotion and actions. These sculptures are part of a continuation of ideas she has explored in other sculptural forms and drawings. Come see “Hinterlands & Murmurations” to dwell in a place where art transcends words about humanness and our ephemeral planet.
"Delusions" by Heather Weller, guest curator Robrt Pela
In “Delusions” and much of her artwork, Heather Weller explores themes related to the human subconscious through figure and still life paintings. She aims to give life to the inner world of dreams and nightmares. She is strongly influenced by classical art, drawing inspiration from the Renaissance and Baroque eras. Weller embraces risk-taking as essential to her career as an artist. She says, “Each painting presents the possibility of defeat, but in every failure is the opportunity for improvement.” Heller aims to push limits and question the conventional in her work. In the show “Delusions,” she brings the subconscious forward and gives life to things we cannot see or touch. Through the symbolism of objects and figures she merges reality and the inner workings of the human mind while exploring themes such as grief, fear, and uncertainty. Weller considers art an opportunity to question our perspectives of the world we live in and to “develop visual statements when words alone are not enough.”