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Next Friday at Picture Farm Gallery, we are proud to present Rowan’s Sphere, a solo exhibition of the recent paintings by Chilean-Venezuelan artist Pilita Garcia, curated by Todd Stewart.

Rowan’s Sphere is a paradoxical world inhabited by figures with sharp collars and dignified postures, relating wonder from a previous era. Yet, they are painted in our post-mystery age where discoveries have radiused the world’s enigmatic corners. Their faces wear vanity specific to looking at neverending LED-lit newsfeeds. But Garcia paints light that is ambiguous, as in her self portrait “Selfie” that is at the same time alive and dead, in a state where one’s spirit just escaped its body. An image only captured through time, these daguerreotype-like paintings show a record of the subject that tries to keep attention – as in during a camera’s exposure – time condensing the sharpness and blur of reality. Garcia’s live-sitting process of painting seems to give the viewer time to meditate on this interaction. The faces show something about our self-obsessed age; ourselves on a multitude of screens – coy spirits looking at our own profiles in a mirror of some imaginary dressing room. They also show that outside of that room, there is a moment one can actually believe in a current mysteriousness.
-Juan Fontanive
Pilita Garcia is a painter working in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. She was born in Vina del Mar, Chile and raised in Caracas, Venezuela. She earned her BFA in painting at the School of Visual Arts in 1996. She has worked as an artist assistant for Ryan McGinness, Cai-Guo Qiang and Vito Acconci. She has shown her work internationally (selection), in New York: “Thesis” Visual Arts Gallery (1996),“P-Loft”, Dumbo Arts Festival (2001-2004), “The Art Parade” Deitch Projects (2004), “L Factor” Exit Art (2005), “Venezueland” Galeria Galou (2005), “All Cut-Up” Roebling Hall (2008), “Pinta” Latinamerican Art Fair (2009). In Chile: “Collage”, Museo de Arte Moderno Chiloe (2001). In Venezuela: “Balance/Fuera de Balance” Jovenes con FIA Caracas (2006), “Slideluck Potshow”, Museo de Arte Acarigua Araure (2007),“Reflect/Refract” Rich Gallery, London (2008). In Argentina: “Home” Feria de Arte BA, Buenos Aires (2009). In the UK: “Ellas” The Art Reach, Nottingham (2011), . In Washington DC: “Vista” University of Maryland (2012). www.pilitagarcia.com