REPETITION AND CHAOS

THE DISTINCTLY HUMAN AND VIVID WORK OF AMAIA GOMEZ MARZABAL

“My inspiration is the image itself. I like to tell a story with my art and let the viewer thinking about the message of the image,” says Amaia Gomez Marzabal of her paintings, “Through the ideas of repetition and chaos, I like to speak about human behaviors: what we repeat unconsciously and what we try to change from the social patterns we have learned since childhood.” There is something inherently human and messy and true about seeing an image that feels so real but which at the same time edges into the surreal like one sees in Amaia’s work. There is something extremely human and vulnerable about seeing blurred edges and rose wallpaper and smeary faces and subway seats, all mashed into a technicolor moment of life and a mind that we have the unique opportunity to step into through Amaia’s paintings. Within her unique visual style, Amaia is able to not only tell the stories she wants but show both someone’s inner and outer world, past and present and future, thoughts and fears and hopes and lost loves, all contained within a single image. This is a true talent.

Amaia, born in Bilbao, Spain, says that her goal as an artist is “to be very sincere with my work. It doesn’t matter if the final image isn’t perfect. The message is: try to accept the imperfection in yourself. That’s why painting is like a therapy for me because I try to learn from my own psychology: what patterns I’m repeating in my life? What do I need to change? These are my main questions.” Since the age of two, she has been painting with the same materials, mixed media, acrylics, and oils, and because of her lifetime of use with these materials they provide comfort and familiarity through which Amaia can slip into the artistic and therapeutic process.

Amaia has a B.A. in Fine Arts and a MFA in “Investigation and Creation in Arts: INCREARTE” from the University of the Basque Country in Spain. She has received grants from the Kutxa Bank, Gobierno Vasco/ Euroregion/ Garapen, and Etxepare Institut, Spain. Her work has been shown in a number of exhibitions in Spain, Italy, and the United States, including a solo show at the Politecnico de Milano in Italy. Marzabal also works with the “Cerdas Collective,” who publish and exhibit regularly in Spain. Her work is held in private collections in Europe and in the Eileen S. Kaminsky Family Foundation. Currently, she is represented by Gallery 104 in Soho, NY. Most recently, Amaia was the recipient of the artist residency at ESKFF Foundation in Mana Contemporary Art Center NJ, where she has developed a new body of work.

We are all human and in that, or maybe because of it, we carry within us the traumas and triumphs of our pasts as well as the glow of hope for our future. It seems that in art, many there are two common directions in regards to exploring the psyche and the inner world of the human mind: the first is to ignore it and act as if is everything is perfect and fine and the other is to completely commodify any sort of darkness or pain and over-exaggerate it. The genius of Amaia’s work is in the subtlety and seeming mundanity of her designs and subjects, which are always slightly off or tilted in a way through which we are able the real and inner lives of these people and of the artist herself.

AMAIA GOMEZ MARZABAL

SPAIN

www.marzabal.net

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