Tropical Geometries — Carolyn Castaño

Projects > Tropical Geometries

painting, works on paper
2018-2019

Ruana Interruption ( Purple and Gold)
Watercolor, gouache on watercolor paper mounted on plexiglass

In Tropical Geometries, landscape and pattern are used to re-imagine ideas of modernity, progress, and identity in the Americas. Landscape painting, mapping, cartography, and botanical illustration co-exist simultaneously in these works with patterns and free-flowing shapes inspired by Pre-Columbian and indigenous textiles, such those of the Wayuu in Colombia. At the same time, elements of Neo-Concrete painting and 20th Century graphic design interrupt our contemplation of what some might see as a sublime, prelapsarian natural world by interjecting, fracturing, and bifurcating the visual conventions of the "landscape." By putting abstractions and patterns on the same plane as traditionally painted landscapes I hope to not just capture the historical simultaneity of cultures and ecosystems, but also a sense of their possible futures

Ruana Interruption ( Pink and Magenta)
Watercolor, gouache on watercolor paper mounted on plexi

Ruana Interruption ( La Voragine, Orange)
Watercolor, gouache on watercolor paper

Color Ritmo (Red and black)
Waterolor, gouache on watercolor paper

Ruana Interruption ( La W)
Watercolor, gouache on watercolor paper

Ruana Interruption (Red and gold)
Watercolor, gouache on watercolor paper mounted on plexi

Ruana Interruption ( Orange and Blue)
Watercolor, gouache on watercolor paper