Estefania Puerta: Sore Mouth Swore – Gallery Guide

G ALL E RY GU IDE

OVERVIEW Estefania Puerta is an artist who insists on traversing different media to create art that goes beyond the convention of any one genre. Identifying as an immigrant Latina woman, Puerta is deeply connected to displacement and a sense of body that doesn’t quite fit anywhere.

The sculptures in Sore Mouth Swore are infused with an emotional and psychological presence. These materially dense works defy boundaries; they are textural and untidy, seemingly natural yet uncomfortably foreign.

Activated by the viewer’s presence, each sculpture becomes a distinct character. Often, aspects of the body (a tongue, hair, or bones) emerge from the form, suggesting disembodied parts seeking a whole.

Utilizing Sore Mouth Swore’s poetic alliteration, Puerta reveals the challenging act of pronouncing these words in succession. Whether to swear as an insult, or swear as a promise, she is drawn to the duality and uncertainty of language. Evolving from spoken to visual expressions of this theme, Puerta examines the ambiguity within meaning—playing with notions of materials, identity, and transformation.

Heather Ferrell, Curator and Director of Exhibitions NORTH WALL PIPE

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CHECKLIST

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How to Trap a Woman Chapter 5, 2017 Beeswax, synthetic hair, mirrors, glass, foam, fabric, latex, acrylic, pigment, rhinestones, soil, and steel 3' x 2' x 4' 2.

Lunar, 2020 Acrylic, latex, epoxy dough, synthetic hair, soil, canvas, wood, rhinestones, nylon, dye, spray paint, and beeswax 8' x 48" x 12" 3.

Envuelta, 2020 Cloth, beeswax, LCD screen, grapefruit essential oil, resin, and acrylic 24" x 10" x 10" With video, Memory of a Birth Mark,

by A. Howard $3,000 for each cocoon (video NFS) 4.

Cruzando, 2020 Cotton fabric, dye, cotton stuffing, pomegranate, synthetic hair, rose oil, and epoxy 45" x 40" x 10" $2,500 5.

Freud’s Beautiful Ladies, 2020 Steel, plaster pulp, acrylic, moss, latex, silicone, caulk, resin, clay, plaster, honey, wool, rhinestones, and beeswax 36" x 48" x 64" 6.

Death Wish, 2020 Canvas, plaster pulp, acrylic, epoxy, beeswax, clay, latex, and synthetic hair 75" x 18" x 40" $3,000

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Same, 2020 Acrylic and epoxy on canvas 36" x 12" $2,000 8.

Chrysothemis, 2020 Epoxy, latex, synthetic hair, Colombian coffee, nylon, spray paint, beeswax, silicone, plaster, faux pearls, rasberries, and glass work made

by Alissa Faber 33" x 10" x 74" 9.

Spine Bent into a Rose, 2020 Canvas, dye, acrylic, ink, and ynthetic hair 65" x 18" $2,000 10.

Sore Mouth Swore, 2019 Zine (edition of 75) 5" x 8" $12 each 11.

The Hysteric’s Gift, 2019 Epoxy dough, oil paint, mirror Variable Dimensions $3,000 12.

The Laugh of Medusa (Para Cixous), 2019 Canvas, dye, acrylic, coffee, flowers, and laughter 5' x 8'

All Works Courtesy of the Artist, and price upon request unless otherwise noted.

GALLERY PUBLIC PROGRAM ARTIST PERFORMANCE: SORE MOUTH SWORE Wednesday, April 8, 2020 6 – 7:30 pm Generator, 40 Sears Lane Burlington

BIOGRAPHY Estefania Puerta (b.1988, Manizales, Colombia) is a multimedia artist who utilizes sculpture, painting, writing, and performance. As a Latina immigrant and a woman, Puerta draws upon her identity within her work, inviting viewers to explore and cross various boundaries (or borders). She earned her BS at the University of Vermont and her MFA at Yale School of Art, Connecticut. Puerta has been an artist-in-residence at Shandaken Projects at Storm King Art Center, New York; The Generator and New City Galerie; Burlington, Vermont; and the Residencia Corazon in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Following her first solo exhibition, Sore Mouth Swore, at the BCA Center, the artist will be featured in a solo show at Situations Gallery, New York City in May 2020.

Puerta currently resides in Burlington, Vermont.

Estefania Puerta’s Sore Mouth Swore is the fourth installment of BCA’s Project Vermont, a series dedicated to experimentation by providing a setting for contemporary Vermont artists to push their artistic practice while creating new work. The exhibition is a collaboration between Burlington City Arts and Generator. In 2019, Puerta participated as a Generator Maker in Residence to support the creation of work for her Sore Mouth Swore with related performance and programming at both institutions.

BCA Exhibitions are funded in part by a grant from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Vermont Arts Council.

BURLINGTON CITY ARTS 135 CHURCH STREET BURLINGTON, VERMONT, 05401 BURLINGTONCITYARTS.ORG