MARI GABI MESSINA
NANA SANCLEMENTE
BUBBLE - BONE
TRÓPICO LOST
Since illustrating girls with hardened expressions come easily to Mari Gabi Messina, she decided to place the female figure in uncomfortable or distressed positions. The main inspiration for this project was the sensation that invisible walls are pushing them into tight and constricted postures while mimicking geometric shapes. Making the bone structure visible was a conscious decision in order to make the public experience discomfort when seeing the collection of illustrations. Watercolor on paper is the element of choice, facilitating the presence of watermarks while also providing precision for the small details and knotty line art. Using a duo-chromatic palette, Mari Gabi worked to turn something that would normally be considered lugubrious into something more upbeat and psychedelic.
[H]OURS
Nana Sanclemente uses emotional self-portraits with handmade typography and experimental storytelling, to express her constant sensation of “in-betweeness” as a foreigner, even in her own country. Her work focuses in graphic nostalgia, her anxiety about the future and the reminiscence of her cultural identity. In this series, the artist explore the concept of “being lost” using elements of nature such as water and thick vegetation. With this, she recreates the sensation of depth, darkness and the unknown, as the representation of an uncertain future. These elements also depict the artist’s common surroundings (since she comes from Colombia, a tropical country), showing how she misses her land and at the same time how, somehow, she still immersed in the memory of it.
[H]OURS