This week’s Emerging Artist is Ana Pusica.
What are you working on right now?
Right now, I’m pretty committed to a series of paintings that is titled SQUARE AND CIRCLE. The basic idea is to develop with the colors a materiality and dynamic, which allow the viewer to decide what is the story behind the figure picture. Sometimes, the painting’s surfaces are heavily worked, sometimes they are expressively fluid or made of extravagant drips of paint. They are non-abstract, but not strictly figurative either. Though, representing no identifiable portraits, the pictures evoke associations: red-hot magma, cheeky pinks and oranges or cloudy color spectrums. As a result, the artworks exude an intense lightness and are allowing multiple layers of potential meanings.
My intense focus on colors is also reflected within the titles. In fact, every painting is named after a particular color tone that it is made of. As a result, there are titles such as: New Sneakers, Boston University, Tickle me Pink, Lobster Lips or Monkey Breath. Believe it or not, these are all official color names. I like the idea of drawing the attention of the observers away from the question “What do I see on the picture?”.
Concerning my public presentations, I am having right now a solo exhibition at the gallery Stoerpunkt in Munich until the end of May. After that a group exhibition “arkadenale. go to paradise” in the gallery Landeshauptstadt München Kunstarkaden in mid-June. And at the beginning of September there is another solo exhibition in the Bürgerhaus Unterföhring. For that one I am preparing a “color Installation”.
What is your art about?
In my work, the very action of painting is fundamental, and it is the moment when my physical impulses and visual imagination come together on the canvas. What matters most to me is the creative act itself.
My paintings are the expression of my subjectivity. They reflect the poetry of my inner world with its mixture of memories, ideas and quotations from my favorite authors. The gestures are just as important as the subject, as they reveal with the impulses and movements the embodiment of my thoughts. I am someone who lives in my own bubble. Although it seems to be very quiet, only there I can truly express myself.
My art is a physical act, direct, intuitive and in motion. There is a lot of energy in the pictures, that’s why I like to work on large formats. There I can put this concentrated force into the frame. I try to create a new and interesting surface from repeating one motive several times by using a lot of different movements, gestures and randomness. From the mixture of surfaces and layers, something like a figurative image emerges at the end.
Do you find your immediate surrounding inspirational?
Lacking of inspiration is often just a very good excuse to stay in bed, not having to deal with the unknown or an inability to encounter and overcome an obstacle. If something is inspiring or not is for me just a question of my momentarily state of mind. Very often completely uninspiring surroundings lead me to the best solutions. But without the interchange of ideas with people that I respect and appreciate, I could not be so productive, that’s for sure. I cannot say that there are many of them in my environment.
Which artists or what kind of art has the greatest impact on your work?
Howard Hodgkin, Peter Krauskopf, Marlene Dumas, Cy Twombly.
How does the internet influence your way of working as an artist?
What we all know for sure is that the job of an artist is not only being in the studio and creating a picture. Actually, so many things need to be taken care of outside of the studio. With new communication technologies and the emergence of Instagram, artists can in a very short time, without intermediaries, reach people and present their work – at least digitally. This makes us more independent than before. I still have not made a clear decision if I find that good or bad. I’m just afraid of becoming very annoyed by the crowd of hobby artists who have overbooked the internet.
