SHADOW IN SCORPIO CATALOG 2024
Fibla Mondaca Estefania
PUMANAWA GALLERY, THE ARTS CENTRE, SOLO EXHIBITION, CHRISTCHURCH, NEW ZEALAND
Estefania Mondaca Fibla Shadow in Scorpio
September 2024
Pūmanawa gallery, The Arts Centre
Christchurch New Zealand.
Design and art work Estefania Mondaca
Reproduction and any other unauthorized use by the author is prohibited.
All rights reserved.
P ūmanawa Gallery, The Arts Centre, Solo Exhibition, Christchurch, New Zealand.
P ūmanawa Gallery, The Arts Centre, Solo Exhibition, Christchurch, New Zealand.
Estefania Mondaca Fibla
www.estefaniamondaca.com
Estefanía Mondaca, originally from Chile, has seamlessly integrated into the vibrant art community of New Zealand since her arrival. Her work has been prominently featured in renowned venues such as the Ashburton Art Gallery, where she was a finalist for ZONTA 2024. Additionally, she has been selected to showcase her work at a group painting show in Coca in June of this year, and is consistently showcased at the Linwood Eastside Gallery as a local artist.
Estefania’s artistic journey is characterized by a rich blend of influences, ranging from her academic background at the Painting School of the University of Chile to charcoal drawing and collage.
Her work often revolves around the theme of memory, capturing the essence of both Chile and New Zealand through a combination of personal recollections and found imagery. Her dedication to materiality and the different phases of her creative process underscores the profound relationship between artists, materials, and their lived realities.
2023 · oil on canvas · 400x400 mm · Chile
SHADOW IN SCORPIO
The artist’s first solo exhibition in New Zealand, titled “Shadow in Scorpio,” emerges 10 years after she departs from Chile, her homeland. The exhibition focuses on a journey through memory, inner landscapes, and grieving.
The collection includes a series of interior scenes from her home and her parents’ home in Chile. The pictorial imagery seeks to encapsulate the experience of seeing these intimate spaces for the last time, condensing time into the materiality of oil paint.
Each room captures a moment in time, evoking a sense of nostalgia and introspection. Visitors will find familiar spaces that simultaneously challenge the concept of familiarity and normality.
Each painting invites viewers to immerse themselves in the narrative, connecting with their own memories and emotions. Altogether, “Shadow in Scorpio” offers a visual exploration of shadow, providing a space for reflection and connection.
2024 · oil on canvas · 900x1200 mm · The Sauce Avenue #836, Part I
2024 · oil on canvas · 900x1200 mm · The Sauce Avenue #836, Part II
2024 · oil on canvas · 900x1200 mm · My father said: Never go back to the place where you were happy, Part I
2024 · oil on canvas · 900x1200 mm · My father said: Never go back to the place where you were happy, Part II
2024 · oil on canvas · 900x1200 mm · Shame wound
In the process of painting this series, and starting from the idea of memory as a device capable of containing information, real or not real, accurate or inaccurate, the need to reflect on painting as a structure that gives material form to the processes of forgetting, departure y death.
Since living in another country, death is presented as a protagonist, both because of the death of a past life that has apparently been left behind, and because of the natural fear of the human being in the face of the destruction of material form.
A key piece to understand this series is the work entitled “My father said: Never go back to the place where you were happy”, as it represents the last time I saw my house in Chile before moving to New Zealand, which was also built by my late father. The painting attempts to contain this experience, that of contemplating this space for the last time, stopping and condensing time.
2024 · oil on canvas · 900x1200 mm · Untitled
In his text “On Drawing”, John Berger tells us: “When my father died recently, I made several drawings of him in the coffin. Drawings of his face and his head (...) However, drawing what is actually dead requires an even greater sense of urgency. What you are drawing will never be seen again, neither by you nor by anyone else. This moment is unique in the course of time, of time past and time future: it is the last chance to draw what will never be visible again, what has happened once and will never happen again.”
Berger emphasizes the need to approach his father’s death through drawing, as a way of understanding reality —this same structure previously described.
Through the act of observing,perceiving,and relating to reality,the series Shadow in Scorpio highlights transitional spaces. A further example is the piece Fendalton, which references a photograph taken during a house move — a moment of transition, leaving behind a familiar space once called “home” as it transforms into an unknown or non-place, where suitcases, clothes, and objects are scattered in disarray, no longer belonging to their previous settings.
In summary, the series takes on the challenge of portraying spaces that are both limited and undefined, even though they graphically remind us of familiar domestic environments.
2024 · oil on canvas · 900x1200 mm · I have a lot of black socks
2024 · oil on canvas · 900x1200 mm · Fendalton
EDUCATION
• Ara, Institute of Canterbury, Bachelor of Architectural Studies (2022)
• Ara, Institute of Canterbury, New Zealand Diploma in Architectural Technology (2020-2021)
• C.F.T. Juan Bohon, La Serena, Chile; Architectural Draftsperson (2013-2015)
• El Iris, Visual Academy with Rodrigo Vega, Santiago; Chile (2011-2012)
• University of Chile; Santiago, Chile; Bachelor of Fine Arts, Professional Painter (2007-2012)
• University of La Serena; Coquimbo, Chile; Graphic Design (2006)
NEW ZEALAND EXHIBITIONS
• Pūmanawa Gallery, The Art Centre, Solo exhibition, “Shadow in Scorpio”, Christchurch (2024)
• ZONTA Ashburton Female Art Awards 2024, finalist, Ashburton Gallery, Ashburton (2024)
• Craigs Aspiring Art Prize, Collective exhibition, Wanaka (2024)
• New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts, Collective exhibition, “Open show”,Welligton (2023)
• Linwood Arts & Eastside Gallery, Collective exhibition, “Eastside Spring”, Christchurch (2023)
• Craigs Aspiring Art Prize, Collective exhibition, Wanaka (2023)
• The Huanui, Collective exhibition, “In the eye of the beholder”, Darfield (2022)
• Linwood Arts & Eastside Gallery, Collective exhibition, “Eastside Spring”, Christchurch (2022)
• Linwood Arts & Eastside Gallery, Collective exhibition, “Good trouble”, Christchurch (2022)
• Club Creative, collective exhibition, “Hello I am the show”, Christchurch (2021)
• Art Hole, Collective exhibition, “Another View”, Christchurch (2021)
• Linwood Arts & Eastside Gallery, Collective exhibition, “First steps”, Christchurch (2021)
• Art-omat, Solo exhibition, “Memory Distortion”, New Brighton, Christchurch (2021)
CONTACT
• estefania.mondaca@gmail.com
• 021 0820 6634
• www.estefaniamondaca.com
• @estefania.mondaca
CHILE EXHIBITIONS
• Santa Ines Cultural center, Collective exposition, “Almagro on white”, La Serena (2014)
• Taller Medrano, Collective exposition, Coquimbo (2014)
• Casa de las Artes, Collective exposition, Coquimbo (2013)
• Taller Medrano, Collective exposition, Coquimbo (2011-2012)
• Vicuña Theatre, Collective exposition, Vicuña (2012)
• Espacio Cellar, Collective exposition: “Only the sky is blue”, Santiago (2012)
• Dos Gardenias, Collective exposition, Santiago (2012)
• University of Chile, Solo Thesis exposition, “The Towers of the desert”, Santiago (2010)
• Culture Las Animas Dome, Solo exposition, “Perennial Symphony”, Coquimbo, (2009)
COLLABORATIONS
• Artwork for “Nocturna” Illustrated poems book, Guillermo Mondaca, Santiago; Chile 2015
• Artwork for “The Finished Touch”, Samantha Josephine musician, Christchurch; New Zealand; 2020 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgJ2ZddxJFY
• Art work for “El Efecto de la Sombra”,Tus Pajaros Muertos band, Santiago; Chile 2020
https://tuspajarosmuertos.bandcamp.com/album/elefectodelasombra
PUBLICATIONS
• Art Beat, Canterbury Arts newspaper and website, “Another View”, (2021)
Review: https://artbeat.org.nz/another%20view
• Stuff: 10 exhibitions to look out for in July, (2021)
Article: https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/arts/125619257/10-exhibitions-to-look-out-for-in-july
• Aotearoa Artist, The New Zealand Artist Magazine, (2022)
Article: https://thenzartist.co.nz/article/estefania-mondaca/