Collection of To8.5' diameter, 12 parts closed8.5 feet diameter, 12 parts closedPlywood,rosewood veneer,casters,wool,leather,vinyl,polyester,silk,and cottonTodd Johnson
Collection of ToTodd Johnson
Collection of Todd SimonSource: FinePixS2Pro
Collection of To8.5 feet diameter, 12 parts closed8.5 feet diameter, 12 parts closedPlywood,rosewood veneer,casters,wool,leather,vinyl,polyester,silk,and cottonTodd Johnson
Collection of ToTodd Johnson
Collection of Todd SimonSource: FinePixS2Pro
“Everybody Needs a Little Cowboy,” a series of sewn “paintings,” appropriates album covers, graphics, and icons of cowboy culture to reposition Americana not often associated with fine art. Future Cowboy locates these words (in a Western-style font) within a kaleidoscopic composition of lines. The image juxtaposes ideas of a rugged, rural lifestyle with the mind-altering psychedelia of the future, elevating albums, signage, and the West to high art.
The casual beauty of a student’s discarded color wheel was the starting point for “Unravelling The Rainbow.” Guerrero-Maciá was intrigued by the combination of geometric shapes, ordered color, and homemade aesthetic. Her resulting project amplifies and refines these elements: the recovered wheel is formally presented in the gallery, as are studies and an over-sized, floor bound sculptural version. Fabricated out of leather, vinyl, cotton, and wood, the twelve movable slices represent each of the wheel’s colors. The outcome is a playful combination of sculpture, furniture, and abstract image that softens the science of painting.
“The Beautiful Game” began with a flattened child’s soccer ball. Like the color wheel, the splayed ball, with its thirty-two faces, has a physical relationship with its discipline. There are thirty-two qualifying teams in each World Cup, and the disassembled colorful ball not only rhymes with the rainbow of uniforms worn by teams, but also resembles a world map. The artist has created drawings, a collage, and five-foot tall patchwork representations of this flattened ball and another, forming a body of sewn, feminized artwork based on a masculine sport globally referred to as the beautiful game.
Diana Guerrero-Maciá proposes alternate ideas of what an image can be by making her mark with fabric, thread, graphics, and found objects—but not paint. Her projects join low-tech with high- and feminine with masculine to close the gap between the discarded and the beloved.
