My work is an exploration of vulnerability. Rooted in my own experiences and especially tied to the difficult history of my Colombian homeland; this tropical land, home to mountains and oceans, llanos and rainforests, is also a place of intense growth and change, and constant violence. Coming to terms with this reality leads my search for truth through art.
I base my imagery on the natural environment and build from a preoccupation with language as it describes our knowledge. As in poetry, there is a shorthand of expression that creates mulitple layers of meaning and understanding. Like memory, the articulation of space encompasses experience, the lived life. I focus on emotional transparency to make tangible the weight of experience.
Light obscures and reveals, constructs and rebuilds realities both real and imaginary, impacting the distance between the artist and viewer. Whether with light or with paint or with technology, whether two-dimensional or spatial, the aim is always to extend the reach of the images.
Mark-making, whatever the medium, is a way of moving backwards and forward in time and in space. It is here that the fragility of our existence becomes clear, and here that we experience the epiphany of the encounter with beauty.
Lorenza Panero, 2023