Betteravia Gallery’s “I Can See Your Tag: Portraits!” exhibition explores emotional revelations, and the result is both an inner and outer view of various individuals.
Curated by Connie Rohde, director of C Gallery in Los Alamos, the show’s theme plays with the notion that clothing may disclose something about the wearer, but so may body language and facial expressions. Seeing someone’s tag carries implications of transparency, closeness, and intimacy, but the concept of “tag” can also reveal a person’s socio-economic preferences—or in a pop-culture sense, “territory.”
For Luis Ramirez, the art reveals as much of himself as it does of the people in the portraits he submitted. His work includes a study of his girlfriend, using a limited palette of four colors, a portrait of a friend wearing a cow skull, and a drawing of a sketch he drew of a sculpture in China. Each piece has special meaning and connection to Ramirez, who likes to work from observation, which he calls the base for all art-making.
“I’m really drawn to it,” he said. “It’s such an honest way to go about creating artwork because you are depicting what is going on in that moment, and everyone will do that differently.”
He added that his view doesn’t mean he thinks abstract art is any less important, just that it has more meaning for him right now.
“Every person uses a different vehicle to get to their destination, and right now my vehicle is working from observation,” he said.
Kathleen Yorba’s vehicle is memory. The work she entered primarily surrounds the idea of memory and identity.
“I believe the body carries memory, and these are memories that goes back to our ancestors,” she said. “There are no references for these pieces. That’s just what my body revealed from my memory.”
Much of her work generally turns toward the concept of the cycle of life and how humans fit into it. All of her work comes from someplace inside her revealing concepts she didn’t even realize existed within.
“I generally will get an idea, a seed, and let it germinate and let the materials and the idea work through me and in me,” Yorba said.
Arts Editor Shelly Cone severs all her tags so as not to reveal too much. But she’ll gladly read yours. Send your tag to scone@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Dec 9-16, 2010.