Born in 1970 in Los Angeles to a Mexican activist filmmaker father and a muralist-come-painter mother, Camille Rose Garcia is being honored at Art Basel Miami today for her contribution as a Mexican artist.
This is a part of Maestro Dobel Tequila's annual ‘Legacy Series at Art Basel’ which was created to celebrate creatives within the worlds of art, design, fashion, and architecture, who are highlighting Mexico's talents on a global stage.
Garcia worked on murals from an early age thanks to her mother (she was fourteen to be precise), her art was a distraction technique, a way to remove herself from the mundanity of Orange County suburbia. Her childhood and teens was an interesting mix of Disneyland and punk shows, where the enchanted meets the disenchanted.
Garcia’s layered, broken narrative paintings of wasteland fairy tales are influenced by William Burroughs’ cut-up writings and surrealist film, as well as vintage Disney and Fleischer cartoons, acting as critical commentaries on the failures of capitalist utopias, blending nostalgic pop culture references with a satirical slant on modern society.
Garcia's work is currently held in Los Angeles County Museum as well as the San Jose Museum of Art.
“We are delighted to honor the importance of artist Camille Rose Garcia at Art Basel 2018, she reflects many of our brand values and we feel it is important to keep Mexican heritage and culture very high on the artistic agenda during the international focus of Miami Art Week.” Maestro Dobel
What is your first artistic memory? My first artistic memory was watching classic cartoons, Betty Boop, Felix the Cat, and early Disney animation. I was enchanted by the fact that they were made of thousands of photographed drawings. Also, I was an avid book collector as a child and my Mom, an artist herself, had many art books around the house. Salvador Dali, illustrated books by Edward Gorey, these were all part of my childhood experiences.
What does the honor at Art Basel mean to you? For many years the style of work I do, Pop Surrealism, wasn’t recognized by the mainstream art culture, so it’s nice to see it becoming part of art history now. I see myself as part of the lineage of female surrealists working with subconscious symbolism, that lineage includes artists like Frida Kahlo, Leonora Carrington, and Remedios Varo.
What's the spirit of your artwork? My goal as a painter is to speak in a language of symbols that are universal, that anyone can enjoy without any knowledge of art, and to be a reflection of our times. I work with the symbolic language of fairy tales and folklore, these are universally understood, and the nature of my work is to address the conflict between the man-made world and nature.
Who/what has had the biggest influence/s on your work? Dystopian literature, punk rock, early Disney cartoons, Horror movies, the list is long!
How your style evolved over the years? I think my style has evolved over the years in that it has become more of a personal, internal dialogue the way that maybe an Elliot Smith song is. It’s both deeply personal and universal at the same time. I created a language of personal symbolism, but these symbols like the Poison Apple, the Witch, the Spider, have deep meanings that resonate with other people, as it’s all really pulled from the collective unconscious.
What do you want the viewer to think/feel on viewing your pieces? I would hope to bring the viewer into a different dimension than the one they currently live in. It could be beautiful or terrifying, depending on their perspective.
