_{Image courtesy of Cristina Gutiérrez-Cruz, Primavera – Spring, 2015}

Interview with Cristina Gutiérrez-Cruz

Luca Curci talks with Cristina Gutiérrez-Cruz, during the event OXYGEN – FRAGMENTED CITIES+IDENTITIES, hosted at Jorge Jurado Gallery (Bogotá) on November 2016.

Cristina Gutiérrez-Cruz studied Art and Landscape Design in Louisiana State University (LSU); and at the Paris American Academy in France, Universidad Autonoma de Centroamerica UACA, in San Jose, Costa Rica, she is an architect and also an artist. She has participated in 16 group exhibitions and held 3 solo shows at Costa Rica, Guatemala, Paris, France and USA. The most important are IEAA Best 0f 2016 Art book; 7 Pintoras Latinoamericanas, Museos de Casa Santo Domingo, Antigua Guatemala; Art Fusion Gallery, Miami U.S.A. Casa del Artista, and Haussmark, San Jose, Costa Rica. Nature contains that part of the external experience considered interpersonal or shared, and through her abstract painting and drawing, she assumes the task of exploring this region. The inside contains that part of the inner experience that is impersonal but also archetypal shared by the collective unconscious that is the route color and movement took in my world.

 

_{Image courtesy of Cristina Gutiérrez-Cruz, Inner dawn, 2016}

 

Luca Curci – Can you talk about your artistic work? Which are your inspirations?

Cristina Gutiérrez-Cruz – I think of myself as a mystical artist, connected to the whole, preserving the links that tie duality of reason and consciousness integrity. I express this connection in bright colors and strong free brushstrokes, reflecting all universal ideal of freedom. My sense of color represent my instinctual force and intuition as well as the strength of a line when drawing a rose, which is my symbol for the soul. My abstract artwork belong to abstract expressionism, but not as a label, because I am committed to an expressive art of deep emotion and universal themes. That is why I also choose the whale as a symbol. We all are Jonah in this world, trying to understand the navigation dichotomies of civilization

L. C. – Are your artworks focused on a specific theme?

C. G. C. – The search for the interior in the collective unconscious, which is my own, sailing across the empty canvas or sheet of paper through painting or drawing or building installations.

 

_{Image courtesy of Cristina Gutiérrez-Cruz, High Pressure, 2016}

 

L. C. – What is your creative process like?

C. G. C. – I paint intuitively, capturing the essence of light and positive energy in the experience itself. In the process, I explore unlimited options that present themselves and a variety of elements that appear while I sail through canvas or paper or any other material. I do not represent objects but the undercurrent and the core of what comes through to me.

L. C. – Did you style change over the years? How?

C. G. C. – Of course it did. I started representing the world figuratively and as time passed, I began to research art through my intuition.

L. C. – What do you think about the concept of OXYGEN – FRAGMENTED CITIES+IDENTITIES? In which way did inspire you?

C. G. C. – The destabilizing and uprooting social forces that created the “urban mind”, brought the pervasive uncertainty about how to place oneself in an increasingly pluralistic environment. This exhibition was a challenge for me to manifest that fragmentation within the unity of color and movement in three different canvases.

 

_{Image courtesy of Cristina Gutiérrez-Cruz, Cristina Gutiérrez-Cruz, Puerto Viejo}

 

L. C. – What role does the artist have in society? And the art?

C. G. C. – The role that artists play in society is multifaceted and responds to the same motivational elements of this society that the French art critic Guy Debord called “the spectacle” in the sixties. However, I consider that the role of the artist is to create consciousness and permeate the unconscious of the public. Because art continues to be a sacred experience, even though culture has turned it into just a business.

L. C. – Do you think It’s LIQUID Group can represent an opportunity for artists?

C. G. C. – Helps to ensure that the impressive international range of expression and creativity throughout the world, is represented at each exhibitions “It’s Liquid” organizes. Moreover, of course it is a huge opportunity for artists.