Theresa Chromati : VETA Residency, Interlude in Crusted Wounds

VETA by Fer Francés is pleased to present the first solo show by Theresa Chromati (Baltimore, USA, 1992) in Spain entitled Interlude in Crusted Wounds. The show presents an intimate new suite of work created during Chromati’s residency in Madrid.

 

Chromati’s work expands the traditional boundaries of painting through fragmented forms of desire and an abstracted figuration. The artist explores diverse layers of black womanhood through vortices of vibrant colour and texture. Chromati’s central figure manifests in various forms, often contorting, unraveling, and reaching forward overtime. Although their faces, eyes, breasts, bellies and limbs appear otherworldly, Chromati’s figures are engaged in the very human effort to find balance, strength, and empowerment in a chaotic world. The artist also explores elements of support depicted in her relationship to “scrotum flowers”, the most recurrent symbol in Chromati’s iconography.

 

The new body of work presented in Madrid parts from the idea of renewal. The works at the show appear interspersed with some physical interludes, brief pauses that inform the viewer about what is about to come and reaffirm what remains to be true.

 

As usual in Chromati’s oeuvre, the paintings are composed by many transparent layers, all of them related to each other mixing different media as acrylic paint, glitter or soft sculpture. Those layers create also moments surrounded with airiness, moments to rest. We can apply the same idea to the aluminium structures that support the paintings. The actual repetition of pauses replicated in the physicality of these structures also grounds this idea of support in a momentary space. The bronze sculpture, entitled, steadfast, step into me (allow silence to create the sounds you desire most), represents a “scrotum flower”, considered an element where masculine and feminine are on its own. However, this does not allude really to gender, it is more about energy and balance. This special orchid is a symbol for power gained through the harmony between feminine and masculine energy.

 

Chromati and collaborator Pangelica (Baltimore, USA, 1992) have composed an intimate soundscape specifically for this body of work. This new soundscape, entitled Interlude in Crusted Wounds (soundscape), acts as an audio interlude between the pieces and a direct response to the disparate aura of the galleries top floor. Language is woven through this piece and acts as an additional access point into the works. Recurring breaths and Chromati’s distorted voice act as a cryptic guide as they manoeuvre throughout the space.

 

Theresa Chromati attended Pratt Institute where she began exploring her fluid relationship with painting and design. Since then, the artist’s multi-disciplinary practice has garnered critical and institutional attention. Chromati has participated in various group exhibitions, most recently at Leslie Lohman Museum, The Pérez Art Museum Miami, Levy Gorvy, the Baltimore Museum of Art, the VII Moscow International Biennale for Young Art, and The Extreme Present co-organized by Jeffrey Deitch and Gagosian. She has been featured in The New York Times, i-D, Interview Magazine, Juxtapoz, Hyperallergic, Document Journal, Architectural Digest, and Vogue to name a few. Her works belong to the permanent collections of The Perez Art Museum Miami, Miami, FL; Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, NC; Rubell Family Collection, Miami, FL; Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD; Burger Collection, Hong Kong; Pizzuti Collection of the Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH; and The Dean Collection, New York, NY. The artist is currently living and working in Brooklyn,NY.