Interview
Claudia Aguilera
Born in Montevideo, Uruguay, but presently living and working in the heart of Fort Lauderdale, USA, Claudia creates visually stimulating portraits through bursts of vibrant colors.
From a young age, Claudia instinctively came to the understanding of the full-color spectrum and the relationship of forms and shapes, as well as the ability to express that understanding onto a canvas. Over the years, this gift has grown passionately into a masterfully harnessed talent, to the extent that she has become renowned for her specialization in Mixed Media Art, and more specifically, her exclusionary portraits.
Using alcohol-based inks as a medium, Claudia highlights her characters with striking backgrounds and vibrant colors, reflecting the beauty and fluidity of the inks - crafting pieces almost impossible to ignore. Her work has gained status in a number of large, renowned exhibitions and more.
What is your background and how did you start your journey in the art world?
“My journey in the art world began at a very young age. As a child, I learned to appreciate art because I grew up with my grandmother, who was an excellent drawing teacher. I remember that drawing and coloring were my favorite activities when I was a child. I always showed her all my drawings once they were finished so she could give me her opinion, which was very important to me as I wanted to be as good as her.
Eager to be able to broaden and deepen my artistic knowledge, I moved to New York. This city has transformed my artistic vision by looking at all the movements, diversity, and cultural development, and how it has influenced artists of the past and today.”
What inspires you most?
“As a portrait painter, I am influenced by mass culture, pop culture, and artistic entertainment. I am interested in modern advertising - all those elements that become icons of modern advertising. When I paint someone's face, I try to reflect their soul. At the same time, I believe in the phrase of Oscar Wilde, “every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter. The sitter is merely the accident, the occasion. It is not he who is revealed by the painter; it is rather the painter who, on the colored canvas, reveals himself.” ― Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray”
“My works are a visual expression of how I see the world. When I look, I see colors. Colors appeal to me, they speak, and I express them.”
What themes do you pursue? Is there an underlying message in your work?
“I believe that ‘Art is the password to the self’. It's a personable path that allows us to recreate ourselves, explore our past, and even allows us to identify abstract feelings and ideas into something concrete.
Inspired by pop culture, I developed a series of works based on what was already being done since the 70s, adding my personal interpretation to them. I use alcohol-based inks as my primary medium, which is a fairly modern medium and provides a wide range of vibrant and previously unimaginable colors to create pop works. I also find portraits to be the most challenging and I enjoy working out the details involved in them. The portrait does not allow mistakes by giving a realistic result, which attracts my perfectionism.
While I like to loosen up a bit in what I paint, I use my knowledge in the abstract world to incorporate that into the backgrounds of those portraits. I try to express a very personal way of interpreting these portraits. After a process of posterization, simplification of shapes and color, I manage to summarize a portrait of a well-known character and transform it into an iconic image. An image that can be loved by many people, either because they like that person or simply because of the colors I use in the work or the composition. I also rely heavily on the psychology behind color, advertising, design techniques, fashion, and history in my work.
There is a study and previous work before starting any portrait, and the techniques and theories mentioned therein are part of it.”
How would you describe your work?
“My works are a visual expression of how I see the world. I explore the relationship between artistic expression and celebrity culture. I work with alcohol-based inks to create portraits with vibrant colors that appeal to the viewer. I want to transmit a good feeling to people when they see my work; I hope they enjoy my art as much as I enjoy making it.”
“Each painting I create is unique in its own right; however, you’ll notice the similarities in all my work if you look closely enough. From explosive backgrounds to colorful true to life depictions of my subjects, my art takes from the ordinary and adds spice to it.”
Which artists influence you most?
“There are many artists who have inspired me in the different branches of art. As for pop art culture, Pauline Boty is one of them. She was the founder of the British Pop Art movement and the only painter of the British movement. I really like her collages and how they express an open or implicit criticism.
I like how subtly and delicately Evelyne Axell plays with sexuality in her paintings and how she mixes colors.
I admire the way that Roy Lichtenstein achieved paintings based on comics and advertisements and rendered them in his style by mimicking the crude printing processes of newspaper reproduction.
Certainly, the importance of Andy Warhol must be mentioned since he was one of the greatest exponents of pop culture, and that his work was based on the relationship between artistic expression, advertising, and celebrity culture - much of what I try to represent in my personal work.
Beyond pop art, I can name many artists who have influenced my work such as Chevreul, Mark Rothko, Salvador Dali, Edward Hopper, Monet, Tamara de Lempicka, John Singer Sargent, Gustav Klimt, etc.
I must name my husband Alfredo Valmana, who is an excellent portraitist and who has influenced me with his art and knowledge.”
What is your creative process like?
“My creative process varies, yet at the same time, I try to follow a certain routine so to speak. Usually, I have in mind the person I want to portray, but there are times when I suddenly see photographs of someone in a magazine or publication and that motivates me to imagine how that person would look in one of my paintings. Once I have defined the character I want to paint, I digitize the image and posterize it. For example, I change the clothing or some things in the photo; I try to incorporate my style even more into it. Then before drawing the image, I must use the fundamental rules of composition: line, space, color, shape, texture, gamut, arabesques, enclosures, radiation lines, and geometry.
Having already determined the aforementioned, I begin to draw my image on the canvas, based on the image that I previously worked on digitally. When my drawing is finished, I start painting the face of the person and then I work on the clothing. Finally, I focus on the background of the painting.
In the end, if the painting I was working on is done on a wooden support, I cover it with several layers of epoxy resin, whereas if the painting is done on photographic paper, I then frame it and apply varnish to protect it.
Most of my paintings are made with alcohol-based inks, but I incorporate spray paint, collage, markers, and different types of materials.”
What is an artist’s role in society and how do you see that evolving?
“I think that one of the roles of artists is to help people not only to know and understand something with their minds but also to feel it emotionally and physically. If for a moment a person manages to disconnect from the sometimes overwhelming current world and focus on analyzing or simply observing the work that the artist has done, I think that the artist has achieved his goal. Art is about connecting with people's emotions. Art is personal and, at the same time, universal.”
Have you had any noteworthy exhibitions you'd like to share?
“Recently I participated in the exhibition ‘Spectrum Miami’, during the week of Art Basel. This exhibition has been very important to me, not only because it is a world-renowned event, but also because I was able to interact and show my art to so many people who attended the event and also meet local and international artists. Several proposals for galleries and purchases have come out of that exhibition. I was more than happy to be a part of this event and hope to see everyone again at the next show!”
