GALLERY BERSHAD
SANDRA GUILOFF
Biography
Visual
artist
Born in Santiago, Chile, 1968
Divides her time between Santiago, Chile and Washington, D.C.
Bachelor of Arts in Painting, Universidad Catolica de Chile, 1992
MFA Program, American University, 2000, class of 2002
Recent Exhibitions
1999
Art-O-Matic: Washington, D.C. Collective
Laundry, site-specific installation
A collaborative work with Rosalind Burns and
Jeneen Piccuirro
The Manhattan Laundry Building. Washington, D.C.
Correspondence:
Rosalind Burns / Sandra Guiloff
Gallery Bershad. Boston, Massachusetts
1998
BlackOut
Pedro de Valdivia Studio. Santiago, Chile
South
by Southeast: Five Women Artists from Chile
505 Gallery. Washington, D.C.
1997
Azul y Rojo (Solo Show)
Centro de Extension. Santiago, Chile
Balmaceda 1215. Santiago, Chile
(Bi)Ciclos:
Arte en dos ruedas (Group Show)
Corporacion Cultural de Las Condes. Santiago, Chile
Galeria de Arte Carmen Codoceo. La Serena, Chile
1995
Supermerc'Art 95 (Group Show)
Palacio Carrasco. Viña del Mar, Chile
1994
Circuito Abierto (Group Show)
Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes. Santiago, Chile
Paisaje
Urbano (Group Show)
Centro Cultural Montecarmelo. Santiago, Chile
Artist's Statement
I am a Chilean artist visiting the United States for the past year. I come from a South American art circuit whose peculiar nature has made me wish to know other ways of making art. Painting in Chile is a marginal form of communication and expression, given the overpowering presence of fashionable and over-intellectualized notions of art, of which conceptual art is the most ubiquitous.
My work has been defined in part by my transitory condition as a traveler: the formats are transportable units, which means that the work itself consists of series. Working immersed in an unknown network forces me to constantly redefine and rediscover what I am doing and thinking. As a self-exile, I am ritualizing my experience through my painting. The limiting conditions and boundaries for my activity as a painter have given me an opportunity to use these difficulties as springboards for the development of my work. A pictorial theme, as content, undergoes continuous change. This is reflected in the changing nature of the various connections between one piece and another, and in the various readings that an audience can have of my work as it changes from one context to another.
After receiving a Bachelor in Fine Arts at the Catholic University in Santiago, Chile, I endeavored to investigate painting issues on my own. The work can be divided into five series: Boats in Suspension (1994-95), Red & Blue (1996-97), Tools (1997), Black & White (1998-99), and Fire (1999). The unifying themes across all phases of my work are, first, the series: the relationship that is established between one canvas and another and with the whole body of the work. Second, the play of opposites, such as light vs. darkness, hardness vs. softness, solidity vs. evanescence. A third theme has been metamorphosis, or the study of the subtle transitional changes that occur between opposites. Color has been central to my search. In order to understand the language of color, I have worked within different frameworks, for example, Goethe's Color Theory and the Bauhaus School. The result of this inquiry has made it clear to me that I am especially interested in issues of light and darkness as a concept that has infinite possibilities and meanings. Gesture has also played an important role, in particular in allowing me to work through emotional memory by establishing a relationship between the past and the present.
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