Exhibitions

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2023

‘Samaras’ 62.5 x 27×2 inches, acrylic and 3D printed in resin pieces on oak wood panels, 2023.

(Solo Exhibition ‘In Between:The Familiar and the New‘ at FreeMarket Gallery, Atlanta, GA, 2023.)

‘Roseta Lecanora’ (Collab with BramDos Studio) 36x36x2 inches, Acrylic, Resin, Oak, Glass Beads and Composite Fibers, steel, LED lights, 2023.

(Solo Exhibition ‘In Between:The Familiar and the New‘ at FreeMarket Gallery, Atlanta, GA, 2023.)

Such a special piece to me and so relevant to the concept of my solo show because my parents were part of the fabrication process. Unconditional love, craft, connection, nature, home.

‘Wood Ear’, 16x12x6.5 inches, acrylic, resin, oak wood, 2023.

(Solo Exhibition ‘In Between:The Familiar and the New‘ at FreeMarket Gallery, Atlanta, GA, 2023.)

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Arete de Inca (Inca Earrings), 9×12 inches, oil pastels and paint pens on pastel coated paper, 2023.
Luna de Monte, 30×23 inches, airbrush acrylics, wax and oil pastels on Arches 88 paper, 2023.
Gunnera de Papallacta, 30×23 inches, airbrush acrylics and oil pastels on Arches 88 paper, 2023.
Flor de Gunnera, 30×23 inches, airbrush acrylics and oil pastels on Arches 88 paper, 2023.
Untitled, 12″x10″, airbrush, paintpens, colored pencils, latex on paper, 2022.
Lecanora Muralis 1, 22″x22″, airbrush and screenprint on paper, 2022.
Lecanora Muralis 3, 22″x22″, airbrush and screenprint on paper, 2022.
Brisa, mixed media on paper, 6″x6″,2021
Flama, mixed media on paper, 6″x6″, 2021
Germina, mixed media on paper, 6″x6″, 2021
EQUILIBRIA, mixed media on paper, 11″x15″, 2021.
ROOTED, mixed media on paper, 30″x24″, 2021,
AERIAL, mixed media on paper, 30″x24″, 2021.
Rebirth, mixed media on print, 10″x8″,2021
Newborn, mixed media on print, 11″x8.5″, 2021.
Spring Showers – One Year of COVID-19, mixed media on paper, 11″x8.5″, 2021
Restauration, mixed media on paper, 11″x15″, 2021. SOLD
Life in Balance, Mixed media on paper, 2020
Sediment, ink, gouache, paint pen, and mica minerals on paper, 2020
Untitled, ink, oil stick, and mica minerals on paper, 2020
Bleedings, ink and watercolor on paper, 2020
Bleeding Balance, ink, gouache, paint pen, and pencil on paper, 2020
Shelter, ink, gouache, and pencil on paper, 2020
Untitled, mixed media collage on paper, 2020
Through the Mist, mixed media collage on paper, 2020
THROB, mixed media on paper, 2020. SOLD

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Promenade de Sculptures, SCAD Lacoste, France. October, 2022.

Permanent public sculpture commissioned by the President of the Savannah College of Art and Design for the Lacoste campus in the South of France. https://mobile-guides.scad.edu/promenade-de-sculptures#/sculptureshttps://www.scad.edu/blog/scad-lacoste-unveils-promenade-de-sculptures

Fabrication Process

Mozley Park/Atlanta, Ga. September, 2022.

Design and implementation commissioned by SCAD SERVE.

Shops of Buckhead/ Atlanta,Ga. March 2019

Latin American Association, Atlanta, Ga. August, 2021.

“Getting Back to what we Love” 5ftx5ft banner commissioned by Living Walls Atlanta in collaboration with CDC, CORE and the Department of Public Health in order to promote COVID-19 vaccination.

Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta/ Atlanta, Ga. May,2020.

SCAD alumni and faculty created a chalk mural at the main entrance to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Hughes Spalding as a thank-you to Atlanta health care professionals in celebration of the SCAD Sidewalk Arts Festival.

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|REM<>VAL|

Peachtree St NE@17th St NE. Marta bus stop bench with shed. One block away from the High Museum of Art. Homeless woman. Pile of IKEA bags. Cold day. Woman talking to herself. Woman playing with her hands. Sunny day. Woman staring into space. Woman rejecting spare change. Woman stretching her feet. Hot day. Woman swinging her body back and forth. Rainy day. Woman smiling to herself. Cloudy day. Woman rejecting food. Woman talking and smiling to herself. Woman playing with her hands. Sunny day. Woman staring into space. Windy day. Woman rejecting spare change. Woman stretching her feet. Hot day. Woman swinging her body back and forth. Rainy day. Woman smiling to herself…

…bus stop bench removed.

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Lecanora Muralis 1, 22″x22″, airbrush and screenprint on paper, 2022.
Lecanora Muralis 3, 22″x22″, airbrush and screenprint on paper, 2022.

Digital Painting printed on watercolor paper

Serigraphy

Sunny Day

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On the Edge

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On the Edge

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The King of Atlanta

Photolithography

Crane Landscape yellow
1/5 “Cranes” from the series “Landscapes of Gentrification”, photolithography, 2018

Crane Landscape red
2/5 “Cranes” from the series “Landscapes of Gentrification”, photolithography, 2018

Crane Landscape black
3/5 “Cranes” from the series “Landscapes of Gentrification”, photolithography, 2018

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4/5 “Cranes” from the series “Landscapes of Gentrification”, photolithography, 2018
Serigraphy

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8/8, “Invasion” from the series “Structures of Gentrification”, serigraphy, 21 x 21 inches, 2018

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5/8, “Invasion” from the series “Structures of Gentrification”, serigraphy, 21 x 21 inches, 2018

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6/8, “Invasion” from the series “Structures of Gentrification”, serigraphy with reflective tape, 21 x 21 inches, 2018

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1/8, “Invasion” from the series “Structures of Gentrification”, serigraphy, 21 x 21 inches, 2018

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4/8, “Invasion” from the series “Structures of Gentrification”, serigraphy with reflective tape, 21 x 21 inches, 2018

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2/8, “Invasion” from the series “Structures of Gentrification”, serigraphy, 21 x 21 inches, 2018

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7/8, “Invasion” from the series “Structures of Gentrification”, serigraphy, 21 x 21 inches, 2018

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3/8, “Invasion” from the series “Structures of Gentrification”, serigraphy with reflective tape, 21 x 21 inches, 2018

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2023

Driven by an unconscious search for the familiar and a sense of belonging through contemplative practices in nature, I have situated myself as an intimate and playful neighbor of the forest and the river next-door for the past few years. The Chattahoochee River in Roswell, Ga, and sporadic visits to Papallacta, Ecuador -a biodiverse cloud forest region in my hometown- have therefore informed my body of work since 2020. I have been observant of nature ́s mechanisms and transitions, its resilience and pace, the speed and the quietness, the flourishing of orderly and diverse phenological patterns…What remains within never-ending mutation cycles? What persists? These abstract mixed media works become a biomorphic multi-perspective assemblage of sensorial and affective information gathered from two specific river sites, those who have awakened intuitive and old childlike practices, as well as quotidian pursuits of home traces in nature ́s drifts.

 

 

 2021-2022

My work explores ideas revolving around the human condition and existential concerns through different art-making processes that include drawing, painting, installation, and objects. From the standpoint of my own perception and approach to my surroundings and motivated by the urge to connect with others and existence, to investigate the idea of balance, to relate to human struggles from an individual and collective perspective, my artistic practice is nurtured by observation and assimilation of the world around me (natural and urban ecosystems). My artistic practice and bodies of work mutate and evolve according to variables of time, place, and personal + global circumstances manifesting into non-objective, pattern based mixed media works. Some of the concepts examined are longing, alienation, transformation, resilience, decay, fecundity, rebirth, adaptability, fragility, impermanence, relentlessness.

 

 

2020 

My work is an exploration of analogies between the human condition and nature. Individual and collective dynamics affected by inner mechanisms and ecosystemic agents. My making process and artistic practice seek to examine ideas of resilience, transformation, rebirth, tension, balance, transition, uncertainty, impermanence. The imagery and mark making vocabulary in my mixed media drawings and paintings come from the recollection of visual information took in from holistic immersions in natural sites in Atlanta, Ga like the Chattahoochee river area and Stone Mountain.

2018 – 2019 

My work examines the relation between urban development and the human condition. I am interested in analyzing and questioning the impact of a booming urban ecosystem over its inhabitants and their interactions within those transforming surroundings. Through a multidisciplinary approach that combines video installation, painting, drawing, and printmaking I intend to tackle societal challenges and hurdles such as the fragmentation of communities, sterilization of areas of the city, and homogenization of populations. The formal language and color palette of the work is drawn from the recognition and observation of visual information and marking systems in the utility sector and construction industry, as well as from an intimate and more personal processes and interactions with simple living organisms such as kidney bean sprouts that I grow in cotton balls.

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Carla Contreras is an Ecuadorian-American multidisciplinary visual artist and educator based in Atlanta, Georgia with a master’s degree in Painting from the Savannah College of Art and Design. Informed by the experience of living by the Chattahoochee River area in Roswell, Georgia and sporadic visits to Papallacta, Ecuador -a biodiverse cloud forest region in her hometown, Contreras is interested in exploring the idea of home and existence through contemplative practices in nature. Her two-dimensional and three-dimensional mixed media works on paper, wood, canvas, and resin become a biomorphic visual assemblage of sensorial information gathered from the natural sites that she explores. Contreras is the first artist-in-residence at Norfolk Southern Corp in Atlanta, Georgia since 2021, is currently working on a big public project mural for an important train station in the city and was recently commissioned a public sculpture for SCAD Lacoste in France. Her work is part of the Microsoft Art Collection and has been exhibited at The Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia, the Mint Museum (Charlotte, NC), the Hambidge Art Auction, the ART PAPERS Auction, SCAD Art Sales, O/Art and The City Auction, and local contemporary galleries like FreeMarket Gallery, Echo Contemporary, MINT, EYP/100, and Besharat. Contreras has been featured in covers, publications, and reviews for the AJC Journal, ELYSIAN Magazine’s Arts and Culture 2020 issue, Studio Visit Magazine, BURNAWAY, ArtsATL, SHOUTOUT Atlanta, and the VoyageATL Magazine for their “Thought Provokers: celebrating artists & creatives” Series.

You can learn more about her work on the links below:

https://www.wescover.com/creator/carlacontrerasart

http://voyageatl.com/interview/check-carla-contrerass-artwork/

https://www.thehuntressllc.com/carlacontrerasart

https://www.instagram.com/carla.contreras.art/?hl=en

https://www.scadartsales.com/art/artists/carla-contreras https://info.loupeart.com/carla-contreras-artist