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Dark My Light Ana Garcés Kiley

“I live between the heron and the wren”[1] —Theodore Roethke In Dark My Light, Ana Garcés Kiley’s second solo exhibition at KAPOW, the artist collapses boundaries between interior and exterior, dark and light, self and other. Notably in this show, she extends her new works into the space of the viewer while embracing the architecture of the gallery as her backdrop. Employing the soft, ethereal Lutradur fabric that has been prominent in her oeuvre, Garcés Kiley carefully and deliberately forms nimble yet formidable hybrids—part animal, part human, part painting, part sculpture—that float, squat, witness, and writhe at varying heights throughout the room. Meticulously drawing and painting with ink and graphite on the surface of the fabric, she channels sensuous and visceral beings. Layered in between the folds of their Lutradur skin, vibrant patterned fabric muted by the transparent veil of the Lutradur encasing peaks through, suggesting enigmatic internal systems. This opportunity to glimpse within incites closer looking and evokes a sense of hidden mystery much like a reliquary. Brimming with detail, each work demonstrates Garcés Kiley’s obsessive and loving attention to both the outer and inner life of these forms. Leaning into third dimensional space, she works from the inside out, leaving behind provocative gifts of discovery for the diligent observer who follows her intricate work such as layered fishnet stockings peeking out beneath her Veiled Ladies, a hidden heart of flies [1] Roethke, Theodore. 1966. The Collected Poems of Theodore Roethke. 1st Anchor books ed. New York: Anchor Books.

ening the tension between inner and outer, elements such as the spine

otective cocoons suggest the potential of ex nihilo, creation from

, as well as a reminder of the reality of mortality. Just as light and dark one another, so do life and death. In this regard, Dark My Light

sizes interconnectivity between the internal and the external, form and

sness, human and animal, earthly and divine.

ungest in a matriarchal line of seamstresses spanning four generations, Kiley often employs techniques in her work used by her mother such

olla, a local upcycling technique specific to her birth city of Pereira,

bia. Repolla, translating to cabbage, refers to an arrangement of fabric

s folded into triangles and placed tightly together to form a spiraling star

ting outward, forming a fractal-like pattern. Used widely in the textile

y, the artist's prime material, Lutradur, also references her longstanding

ement with textiles. A cross between fabric and paper, Lutradur differs

aditional fabric in that its fibers are spun, not woven in a horizontal and grid, resulting in a strong bond material similar to the appearance and

ty of a spun web or cocoon. Garcés Kiley employs the absorbent,

yet delicate material to build her life-size figurative works. Cutting,

g, and sewing the material by hand and machine, the artist works in

m across the Lutradur and fabrics that she sources from New York City’s

build graphic contrasts between dark and light. The works simultaneously present a sense of becoming and of having been with their morphing, fluid quality evoking the continual yet fleeting cycle of life and death with acts of nurturing and interdependent, carnal intimacy central to this experience. Borrowing a line from the poem “In a Dark Time” by Theodore Roethke to title the show, Dark My Light engages with these ideas of containment—the individual corporeal body as a vessel intertwined temporarily, psychically, and geographically with a fantastical array of beings challenging notions of separation and reimagining alternative realities of becoming manifest in our shared evolutionary, cosmic fabric of existence. 1 Roethke, Theodore. 1966. The Collected Poems of Theodore Roethke. 1st Anchor

books ed. New York: Anchor Books.

utrador with cotton, organza and polyester

0 inches

utrador with cotton, oilcloth and monofilament inches.

inches.

utrador, nylon and cotton x 24 (protrusion) inches

x 3 inches

graphite on lutrador and organza with cotton

x 15 inches

(diameter) inches

utrador and organza x 60 inches

Born in Colombia in 1974, Ana Garcés Kiley received her BFA from the University of Houston,Houston, TX, and an MFA from Columbia University. She is the recipient of numerous awards including the AIM Program from the Bronx Museum of Art (2016), the Wheeler Foundation Grant, (2007), the Kimbrough Award from the Dallas Museum of Art, (2003), the Joan Mitchell MFA Grant, (2000), National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts (1999), LeRoy Neiman Center for Print Studies Fellowship, (1998), and was a resident artist at the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts in NYC in 2000. This is Ana Garcés Kiley’s second solo show at KAPOW. She lives and works in New York City.

FA, University of Houston, Houston, TX

tions

y Light (October 2024), KAPOW, NY, NY (solo)

Woman Biennial - I Will Always Love You, La Mama Galleria, NY, NY

g Alphabets, Art Faculty Exhibition, Shirley Fiterman Art Center BMCC, Love Of, 3 person show, curated by Azure Arts, UNTITLED Hotel, NY,

ow, KAPOW, NY, NY (solo) Cloth, Part II, curated by Karen Cordero and Yohanna M. Roa, White

Y, NY

den Boundaries, curated by Gabrielle Aruta and Moises Tlatenchi, Filo

s, Cranford, NJ

n The Garden, Spring Break Art Show, Kourosh Mahboubian Fine Art, (solo)

den Boundaries, curated by Gabrielle Aruta and Moises Tlatenchi, Marfa

Marfa, TX

Guest, NYC Shrine to Beauty, curated by Kourosh Mahboubian, Filo Sofi Arts, Cranford, NJ 2019 Nothing Is Itself All the Way Through, Paul Calendrillo, NYC (SOLO) 2018 Figuratively Speaking, Susan Eley Fine Art, NYC Sympathetic Magic, Westbeth Gallery, NYC Art/Works, Fiterman Art Center, NYC 2017 Bronx Calling, Fourth AIM Biennial, Bronx Museum of Art. Bronx, NY Diaphanous, Paul Calendrillo, NYC Re:search, Shirley Fiterman Art Center, NYC 2015 At This Moment, Shirley Fiterman Art Center, NYC 2014 Love is in the Air, Mayson Gallery, NYC 2013 Everlasting Light, Greene Contemporary, NYC (SOLO)

edia, Sex and Culture in the 21st Century, Museum of New Art, Detroit,

ninas, Madrid, Spain (traveling show - private collection of Joanna

os)

eaths, Famous Accountants, Brooklyn, NY ( 2 person show)

quisite Corpse, Paul Robeson Galleries, Rutgers University, Newark, NJ

l Aliento y Saliva, Latincollector Gallery, New York, NY (SOLO)

g Between our Veins, Taller Boricua Gallery, New York, NY (SOLO) Contemporary Latin American Art Fair, Latincollector Gallery, New York,

nomia / Erotica y Estimulante, McKinney Avenue Contemporary, Dallas,

ares and Dreamscapes, Alberto Peola Gallery, Curated by Ombretta

urin, Italy

een Being, Neiman Gallery, LeRoy Neiman Center for Print Studies, NYC

) Contemporary Latin American Art Fair, Curated by Latincollector

, NYC

2003 cross paintings, Mother Dog Studios, Houston, TX (SOLO) Cue Art Foundation, New York, NY 2002 The Big Show, Lawndale Art Center, Houston, TX 2001 Columbia University MFA Exhibition, Curated by Thelma Golden, NYC Awards and Residencies 2016 AIM 36, Bronx Museum of Art, Bronx, NY 2007 Wheeler Foundation Grant, Brooklyn, NY 2003 Kimbrough Award, Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX 2000 Residency at the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, NYC 2000 Joan Mitchell MFA Grant, New York, NY 1999 National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts 1998 LeRoy Neiman Center for Print Studies Fellowship, New York, NY Publications WestView News, online review by J. Taylor Basker, December 4, 2021 WhiteHot Magazine, online review of Shrine to Beauty, Anthony Haden-Guest, May 2021 Handmade Books, Lark Studio Series, pp 102 and 103, 2010 The Brooklyn Review Vol. # 26, Brooklyn College, pp. 108 and 109, 2009 500 Handmade Books, Lark Books/Sterling Publishing Co., p.340, 2008

ry 13, 2008 l Aliento y Saliva pink covered catalog of show, Panamericana Formas E

os,Colombia, New York, 2008

, Ruth R., Beyond Words - Artists’ Books catalogue, The University of

uth Gallery,Sewanee, TN 2006

ff, Gregory, Cue Foundation for the Arts 2000 Catalog, New York, NY,

sewn and inked, her figures of diaphanously layered fabrics make a spirit-scape of the sensual. In these layers of figures twisting, blooming, birthing, merging and disintegrating, the body becomes a vessel of birth and death, spirit and flesh, masculine and feminine, where the roots of our seemingly dual nature meet and intertwine.