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11 Años de Tierra y Cielo
STATEMENT:
This painting embodies an intimate eleven-year relationship with the life and loss of my grandfather Hernan Montes (1928-2011). Papanan spent a lifetime collecting ecological knowledge and forming an intricate connection to his lands from decades of farming corn, wheat, and squash in Nicaragua. 11 Años de Tierra y Cielo considers the 11 years I knew him in life and the past 11 years of bereavement and imagining. His being my first encounter with death, my latest memory of his image was a portrait of trauma. A moribund body, detached from any past evidence of life. I started this painting of Papanan to continue unearthing our mundane memories as a means to heal and renegotiate my experience with loss. I imagine his calloused hands as he joyfully climbs a long palm tree to fetch me a coconut, the slowness of his pace as he circles the billiards table contemplating his next move, and his warm smile at the chance of an unremitting game of Chalupa. Con todo mi amor, gracias, Nina.
BIO:
Karolina Ochoa-Montes (she/her) is a first-generation Cuban- and Nicaraguan-American artist from the Bronx. She has spent the past four years as a curatorial assistant for the Gallatin Galleries. Her concentration considers the social and ecological dimensions of the built environment in attempts to confront anthropogenic climate change through accessible design. Working primarily in oil, Karolina is largely inspired by her family. A celebration of love. An instrument for grief. An amalgam of dreams and memories.
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