Menu
The New Contemporary Art Magazine

Eliana Marinari’s Mixed-Media Paintings Reflect on Memory

Exploring the reality of "distorted or inaccessible memories," Eliana Marinari applies several layers of aerosol acrylic paint over ink and pastel drawings. In the artist’s “Recognition Memory” and “Recollection” series, portraits and still-life works are given this treatment, respectively. The resulting work is both haunting and brings reflection on our own limitations, as viewers.

Exploring the reality of “distorted or inaccessible memories,” Eliana Marinari applies several layers of aerosol acrylic paint over ink and pastel drawings. In the artist’s “Recognition Memory” and “Recollection” series, portraits and still-life works are given this treatment, respectively. The resulting work is both haunting and brings reflection on our own limitations, as viewers.

On the former series, Marinari says this: “These hazy portraits challenge the viewer, as the process of face recognition becomes more difficult, semantic associations become more important. Neurons involved in face recognition are in close contact with neurons responsible to encode concepts, which respond in a very abstract way to faces. That’s how our brain goes from a perception-driven representation of face features to a memory-driven representation of concepts: meaning is attributed to each feature and qualities such as gender, identity, and appearance are translated on assumptions based on previous experiences, cultural beliefs and values.”

See more of this work below.

Meta
Share
Facebook
Reddit
Pinterest
Email
Related Articles
Nora Keyes, artist and lead singer of art-rock acts like Fancy Space People, The Centimeters, and Rococo Jet, combines painting and collage for intricate, multidimensional pieces. The absorbing work can be scrutinized from feet or inches away, maintaining the viewer’s gaze at every corner. The work can feel otherworldly, yet entirely human in their contemplation and introspection.
Mexican artist José Luis López Galván works with oil paint to create dark and unsettling scenes that can be simultaneously erotic and grotesque. His paintings further estrange the viewer by calling to mind wildly different artistic styles, from the quietly dramatic chiaroscuro of Rembrandt to the surrealism of Dali. López Galván maximizes the dramatic potential of oils, creating lush and eerie tableaux that are populated by enigmatic characters, such as anthropomorphic and lavishly attired rabbits, disembodied limbs and half-human robots. As in paintings by the Old Masters, López Galván’s storybook-like scenes often feel like allegories for a larger narrative. In this case though, the background story resembles the logic of a nightmare or a hallucination more than the workings of the divine.
Rick Berry paints figures that appear to be caught amid rapid, dance-like motions, which he captures with a flurry of brisk, gestural marks. What the viewer gets are not precise renderings of graceful limbs, but expressive images that convey their subjects' energy. Berry's style evokes Abstract Expressionism with its visceral textures, but, ultimately, he reigns in his wild paint strokes to create recognizable, human shapes. Though his paintings are figurative, however, they're not necessarily narrative. Throughout his body of work, one can see the evidence of his process, which seems to be at the forefront even when viewing the finished product. 
Japanese artist Ukiyoemon Mitomoya continues the ukiyo-e tradition with contemporary and political reflections, his works commenting on anything from white-collar life in Japan to Brexit. The result moves between the humorous and satirical to the enlightening, offering a different scope and perspective on the issues of the day.

Subscribe to the Hi-Fructose Mailing List