SEA SPELLS: Recent Works by Izabella Ortiz

SEA SPELLS

Izabella Ortiz

1 Cavin-Morris Gallery • 210 11th Ave, Ste. 201 • New York, NY 10001 • 212.226.2768

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SEA SPELLS

• Izabella Ortiz

Cavin-Morris Gallery New York 3

Sea Spells: Izabella Ortiz February 20th - March 21st, 2020

Cavin-Morris Gallery is pleased to present the second one-person show of dramatic, spiritually abstract works by Izabella Ortiz.

Ortiz’s work has been shown minimally in Europe under the vague genre of Art Singulier, a title roughly equivalent to what some call Outsider Art in the United States. In Europe, Art Singulier originated from Jean Dubuffet’s category for artists whose work he deemed to have more sophistication and less isolation than the classic artists of Art Brut.

Two common aspects of typical Singulier are horror vacuii (a filling in of every possible inch of surface) and often an almost geometric sense of symmetry. A major point of differentiation for the self-taught Ortiz is her complete control of asymmetrical balance by merging the forward, backward, above and below in intricate and dense compositions based around her themes of water, and the controlling of a sense of deep chaos in the natural world.

It is specious to call the work of a contemporary artist shamanic without the proper rigid and very specific training a true shaman receives within the traditions of their culture, but there are indeed commonalities in some spiritual and artistic contexts.

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In Ortiz’s case it was a major physical and emotional crisis, life-changing in scope, that led her to bring the deeper aspects of Nature to her work.

Painting became a form of self-healing. She created it for personal balance, not for the canons of the art world. Although her work can be thematically landscapes, they are not about vast space. Indeed, she has swallowed the oceanic, internalized the sea, and kept visibility not to great inchoate depths but to the messy and tangled intensity of close proximity.

There are creatures, plants, and the almost psychotropic movement of line and atmosphere.

In fact, it is the movement in her exquisitely colored scapes that holds our rapt attention. She combines water, blood, rain, and currents in her water drawings and, like the Aboriginal songline paintings (she lived a long time in Australia), catches the language and intricate geological motion of the land itself.

This is her second exhibition in the United States.

It is also only the second time her new series of larger drawings has been exhibited anywhere. We believe she has transcended category. Her work was one of the surprises and successes of the 2020 Outsider Art Fair. We are privileged to reintroduce her art in this exhibition.

Randall Morris • Brooklyn, NY • February 2020 5

Izabella Ortiz, in her studio

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My mother is Australian and my father French-Colombian and, as a child I lived in France, in Australia and also in Alaska. My painting is impregnated by Inuit, Aboriginal and Indian myths, tales and legend. . .

• It (painting) came to life in an unexpected way. One evening in 2009, like a sleepwalker I grabbed a painting I had at home and painted over it. Since then I have been producing in a compulsive way. . . .

• This „trance painting“ loomed up after a pulmonary illness and has become vital to me.

I have become what I am.

• Most titles contain the word „dream“ because for me, our roots grow in our dreams. . . .

• My dreams are my capacity of transcending everything I intercept, absorb, everything that impregnates me for me to better spill it all out when creating.

All my paintings are „automatic“ and therefore, take life directly on the paper: forms and materials whisper to me what to do.

- Izabella Ortiz

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Water Memories, 2018 • Ink, felt pen, colored pencil, and acrylic on paper • 70.25 x 39 inches • 178.4 x 99.1 cm • IzO 55

details • Water Memories, 2018 • IzO 55

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details • Water Memories, 2019 • IzO 72

Water Memories, 2019 • Mixed media, ink, pen, and acrylic on paper • 74 x 47 inches • 188 x 119.4 cm • IzO 72

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Water Memories, 2020 • Mixed media on paper • 70.5 x 39.25 inches • 179.1 x 99.7 cm • IzO 91

details • Water Memories, 2020 • IzO 91

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details • Water Memories, 2018 • IzO 70

Water Memories, 2018 • Ink, felt pen, colored pencil, and acrylic on paper • 71 x 39 inches • 180.3 x 99.1 cm • IzO 70

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Sea Spells, 2017 • Ink, felt pen, colored pencil, and acrylic on paper • 59.06 x 31.5 inches • 150 x 80 cm • IzO 46

details • Sea Spells, 2017 • IzO 46

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details • Water Memories, 2018 • IzO 61

Water Memories, 2018 • Ink, felt pen, colored pencil, and acrylic on paper • 70.75 x 12 inches • 179.7 x 30.5 cm • IzO 61

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Water Memories, 2018 • Ink, felt pen, colored pencil, and acrylic on paper • 70.75 x 11.75 inches • 179.7 x 29.8 cm • IzO 63

details • Water Memories, 2018 • IzO 63

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detail • Songes (Dreams), 2015 • IzO 76

Songes (Dreams), 2015 • Mixed media on paper • 16 x 12 inches • 40.6 x 30.5 cm • IzO 76

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Mues de Loba, 2015 • Mixed media on paper • 25.5 x 19.5 inches • 64.8 x 49.5 cm • IzO 84

detail • Mues de Loba, 2015 • IzO 84

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detail • Sea Spells, 2018 • IzO 42

Sea Spells, 2018 • Ink, felt pen, colored pencil, and acrylic on paper • 19.69 x 14.57 inches • 50 x 37 cm • IzO 42

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Water Memories, 2018 • Ink, felt pen, colored pencil, and acrylic on paper • 23.5 x 17.5 inches • 59.7 x 44.5 cm • IzO 64

detail • Water Memories, 2018 • IzO 64

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detail • Water Spells No. 2, 2017 • IzO 27

Water Spells No. 2, 2017 • Ink, felt pen, colored pencil, and acrylic on paper • 11.61 x 8.27 inches • 29.5 x 21 cm • IzO 27

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Water Memories, 2015 • Mixed media on paper • 25.5 x 19.5 inches • 64.8 x 49.5 cm • IzO 85

detail • Water Memories, 2015 • IzO 85

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detail • Water Memories, 2019 • IzO 87

Water Memories, 2019 • Mixed media on paper • 26 x 22 inches • 66 x 55.9 cm • IzO 87

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Lichen Spirits, 2014 • Ink, felt pen, colored pencil, and acrylic on paper • 11.81 x 8.27 inches • 30 x 21 cm • IzO 21

detail • Lichen Spirits, 2014 • IzO 21

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detail • Blue Veins, 2014 • IzO 31

Blue Veins, 2014 • Ink, felt pen, colored pencil, and acrylic on paper • 11.81 x 8.27 inches • 30 x 21 cm • IzO 31

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Water Memories, 2016 • Mixed media on paper • 16 x 12 inches • 40.6 x 30.5 cm • IzO 78

detail • Water Memories, 2016 • IzO 78

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detail • Songes Infusés No. 3 (Infused Dreams), 2016 • IzO 10

Songes Infusés No. 3 (Infused Dreams), 2016 • Mixed media on paper • 11.42 x 11.42 inches • 29 x 29 cm • IzO 10

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Water Memories, 2019 • Mixed media on paper • 17 x 13 inches • 43.2 x 33 cm • IzO 80

detail • Water Memories, 2019 • IzO 80

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detail • Songes Infusés, 2016 • IzO 38

Songes Infusés, 2016 • Ink, felt pen, colored pencil, and acrylic on paper • 29.92 x 22.44 inches • 76 x 57 cm • IzO 38

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Songes Infusés, 2016 • Ink, felt pen, colored pencil, and acrylic on paper • 15.75 x 11.81 inches • 40 x 30 cm • IzO 29

detail • Songes Infusés, 2016 • IzO 29

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detail • Water Memories, 2015 • IzO 83

Water Memories, 2015 • Mixed media on paper • 25.5 x 19.5 inches • 64.8 x 49.5 cm • IzO 83

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Water Memories, 2014 • Mixed media on paper • 25.5 x 19.75 inches • 64.8 x 50.2 cm • IzO 82

detail • Water Memories, 2014 • IzO 82

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Izabella Ortiz, at work in her studio

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Copyright © 2020 Cavin-Morris Gallery Catalog Design • Alison Kruvant Photography • Jurate Veceraite Text • Randall Morris

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Izabella Ortiz

Cavin-Morris Gallery • 210 11th Ave, 201 • New York, NY 10001 212.226.2768 • www.cavinmorris.com • info@cavinmorris.com

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