On view at the Centre of International Contemporary Art are 14 new paintings inspired by the artist’s personal experience in Vancouver and the surrounding wilderness of the lower mainland. The large-scale portraits of women within coastal landscapes provokes contemplation and resonance with the characters’ expansive and nuanced facial expression. The enigmatic eyes of her characters lead viewers into a labyrinth of familiarity and unfamiliarity, making us yearn to delve into the stories of the imagined characters she creates.

Exploring the delicate, complex, and sometimes hidden emotions of women is like navigating through a forest; The deep and intricate expression is influenced, if not confined, by the sociocultural system. Women are often expected to hide their sensitivity and internalize negative emotions such as sadness and anxiety. Marmolejo has captured the subtlety in these emotions and created fascinating illustrations of their micro-expressions. The artist frees her characters by allowing them to direct her brushes, resulting in an unexpected and compelling image on the canvas. The flood of genuine emotions brings them to life and connects with the audience.

“My current work juxtaposes the intimate and personal with the monumental, creating large-scale paintings of ambiguous female facial expressions. I am currently exploring issues of gender and identity as a Scandinavian Caribbean female artist, using the portraits and physical expression as a system of communicating vessels to transfer emotions into the viewers creating affective and emotional empathy.”

About the Artist

Tania Marmolejo was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic (1975). She began her artistic career as an illustrator for the fashion and lifestyle sections of Obsidiana magazine (New York). During these years, she designed characters and backgrounds for MTV, PBS, Hyperion/Disney, and Scholastic Books among others, as part of the Data Motion Arts studios animation team, receiving various ASIFA and CINE awards. In 2005 she joined the group of artists at MadArts Studios in Brooklyn, NY, and District and Co. Gallery in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, where she participated in several group exhibitions, focusing entirely on the development of her artistic career along with design. Since then, her work has been exhibited in numerous collective national and international exhibitions, and several Iberoamerican Art Salons in Washington DC, representing the Dominican Republic.