Izabella Ortiz
L'ecume des Songes, 2017
Ink, felt pen, colored pencil, acrylic paint on paper
70.87 x 39.37 inches
180 x 100 cm
IzO 43
WATER MEMORIES: IZABELLA ORTIZ
(March 22 - April 28, 2018)
Izabella Ortiz currently lives in France, but she has lived in Alaska and Australia. Her work reflects the songlines of visionary cultures.
The word oceanic evokes watery expansions and infinite depth, a world where whales and leviathans move wraith-like in blue viscosity. This is a different place than that drawn and painted by Izabella Ortiz.
She has swallowed the oceanic, internalized the sea, and kept visibility not to great inchoate depths, but to the messy and tangled intensity of close proximity. There are creatures, plants, and the almost psychotropic movement of line and atmosphere. She combines water, blood, rain and currents.
What differentiates her from the almost omnipresent horror vacuii of so many of the artists in the category of Art Singulier in Europe and in Outsider Art in the United States, is her complete control of asymmetrical balance. She merges the forward, backward, above and below, reinforcing the viewers’ gaze by presenting a pervading aquatic sense of mystery. There is something new every time one looks at an Izabella Ortiz painting.
Her titles give us some insight. Here are a few samples: Songes Infuses (infused dreams), L’écume des Songes (Residue of Dreams) No. 2, Cracheuse de Songe (Spitting Dream), Water Spells.
This is her first solo exhibition in the United States. It is also the first time her new series of large paintings have been exhibited anywhere. We believe she has transcended category. We are privileged to introduce her art in this exhibition.