Stuck On You is a group exhibition of six Recession Art alumni artists, curated by Melanie Kress and Risa Shoup.  This week, we’ll provide an opportunity to learn more about each artist, including their thoughts and notes from the curators.  Be sure to catch their work in person at our Opening on Saturday March 17, 6 pm to 12 am at RAC.

Paloma Crousillat

Paloma Crousillat, Telescope 4, 2011

About the Artist

Paloma Crousillat was born in Lima, Peru. In 1986 she moved with her family to the Washington, DC area in response to the heightened threat of the Shining Path Revolutionary Movement. The exposure she received as a young child to a bilingual, bi-cultural, and politically charged environment, continues to inspire the central themes of her work: the systems and frameworks of space, language, and beliefs. Paloma received her BA in Fine Arts at the Slade School of Art in London and moved to New York to complete her MFA at the School of Visual Arts. Her paintings and drawings have been exhibited in New York, Atlanta, Washington, DC, London, and Norwich, England. She has paintings in both private and public collections. She currently lives and works in Brooklyn.

Artist Statement

“Systems are an integral part of the human experience, coping mechanisms for the uncertainties of the real. To live in a system, or part of several systems, while maintaining a sense of self, is the ultimate paradox. Myths grow out of this duality, allowing us to bridge the polarity and reach catharsis or epiphany – to realize our “place” in time and space. There is the macro myth, and the micro myth; the religious and the scientific myths; myths of power and glory, success and failure; the myths of war and peace, youth and age.”

Paloma Crousillat, Telescope 1, 2009

Curator Notes

In Paloma’s paintings and drawings, you will notice that although the line work is beyond meticulous, there is something fantastic or slightly surreal about her work. It forces you to examine, in great detail, a structure that we often take for granted or do not consider at all. In our discussions with Paloma, she has explained her work as both a fascination with the architectural forms in the telescopes, space stations, etc., that she depicts, but also an interest in sites of spirituality. These structures (telescopes, space stations), can be thought of as the conduit of our persistent attempts to send questions, prayers, and pleas out into the universe. Whether it be to god, aliens, or science, the sentiment remains the same, and Paloma’s paintings and drawings become portraits of modern-day spiritual sanctuaries. What is fascinating about this work, is that as Paloma becomes caught in more intricate, detailed, and abstracted forms within her subjects, the viewer becomes caught within the architectures we build for asking questions of the universe, making her works also a mirror, reflecting back to us our own questions, flatly, with no answer.