Monica Kim Garza presents her third solo exhibition Good Old Raisins and Peanuts (GORP) at Ruttkowski;68 in Paris. Garza has been painting what she calls her “character” since university. Originally more figurative, she has now abstracted it into several circles to represent the head and body (and, sometimes, boobs), with a few lines to mark out defining features — eyes, nose, a buttcrack.
In Good Old Raisins and Peanuts (GORP) Garza puts her character outdoors, hiking, rock climbing, and lounging on picnic blankets. The accoutrements — backpacks, t-shirts — are pops of colour on neutral bases, which are made up of so much paint that gobs of texture look like rock faces that have been eroded over years.
For some of the paintings, the paint layering took over a year — a technique Garza was inspired to use from Eugène Leroy. If viewed without acknowledging the figurative forms, the paintings can be viewed as their own landscapes, where the paint, hauled across the canvas, creates its own ecosystem of mountains and valleys. Yarn, ribbon and even pieces of cloth — which form belts and shoelaces on outfits — look like bits of detritus left behind by passersby. Like the character, the paintings themselves look like they have been on an adventure. —Brian Ng
