Monica Kim Garza’s paintings reflect a vibrant fantasy or females, in which femmes can be unapologetically themselves. Painted with seemingly quickly paced, equally urgent and impatient, gestural brushstrokes, the female figures and surrounding environments are rendered with just enough detail to set the imagination free. All the women share distinct bodily and ethnical features because they all embody the protagonist; Monica Kim Garza. The wonderful women doing things in the paintings are Garza’s body doubles and soulmates. Multiple self-portraits doing the things Garza does, dreams of, or feels. The unmistakable features are that of a true American, Garza is the daughter of immigrant parents, her mother is of Korean descent and her father of Mexican lineage. Garza has composed an idiosyncratic character that roams through art history and the ups and downs of contemporary life, often nude, and seemingly carefree, but never without purpose. She breaks Gaugin’s glasses and colonialized gaze, taking back female form and freedom. The paintings are contemporary and at the same time firmly rooted in art historical motifs and settings. We see Garza portrayed at the artist’s table, in the studio painting herself or rather her selves, on horseback, on the mountain and reclining on a chaise lounge with La Virgin De Guadalupe resting above her head.
Monica Kim Garza’s work embodies a rare energy and potential. Male, female or any gender, you feel empowered by the encounter.
Monica Kim Garza, born 1988 Alamogodo, New Mexico, USA, lives and works in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
