Karmen Allison
Drawing I
Marela Zacarías was born in 1978 in Mexico City. She now lives and works between New York and Mexico City. Marla is a muralist painter. She has been painting for more than ten years. Her mounted painted sculptures make shapes through twists and turns. They are built from window screens, joint compound, and polymer. They are then painted in geometric patterns.
Marela creates works that are inspired by the sites for which they are made for. Examples include Works Progress Administration murals in the Brooklyn Museum, Mayan textile colors for an installation in Mexico, and a map of Brooklyn for a new hotel in the borough. Zacarías says, “I feel like abstraction really allows for the story to be filtered and to come out in a different way in which people can see it or not see it at all. It at least creates a question: What is this about?”
Her work has really sparked my interest through her interesting shapes and colors being used. I like how she uses surrounding areas to inspire her paintings on the geometric shapes.
This one was definitely my favorite of her works. There are only two colors being used, but I love the pattern she created and I love the shape that is being forced through this particular sculpture.
This is one that I could see as either the map or the mayan textiles. This one seemed particularly geometric to me. I also really like the pop of green on the left and upper areas.
This one felt very African inspired to me and really stood out. The colors are very vibrant and could have been involved in her works for the mayan textiles.
Overall I really enjoyed this artist and thought that her works were very abstract but in an easy way and weren’t forced.
Works Cited:
Artsy. “Marela Zacarías’ Sculptural Paintings Find Inspiration in Ancient Textiles.” Artsy, 6 June 2016, www.artsy.net/article/artsy-marela-zacarias-sculptural-paintings-find-inspiration-in-ancient-textiles.
“Marela Zacarías.” Art21, art21.org/artist/marela-zacarias/.