Interview with Lali Garcia Almeyda
Lali Garcia is a self taught artist whose focus is in realistic figurative paintings with a symbolic and dreamlike narrative. She lives in Peru (1978) and is exhibiting her work internationally and through virtual platforms like Artistas Peruanos and PoetsArtists though 33 Contemporary Gallery in Chicago. She has been published in El Comercio, Peruvian Newspaper, American Art Collector, Buzzfeed, Beautiful Bizarre Magazine and the Florence Academy of Art project “View from your room”.
“I paint ordinary people in magical moments.”
Q&A
How has 2020 events affected your work?
Before this year I divided my time between a small business and painting. I was resolute to learn and push my ability to the limit. So I took almost all the free time I had, and spent it painting and studying on my own. Although I knew it probably would not be enough, I kept working and disciplining my practice for 3 years.
Some things led to others and this year I was offered my very first show in a real Gallery (not in a friend’s bar) with other fellow artists, and curated by a renowned artist in my country, but as you can guess it was canceled due to the pandemic.
After the initial shock, the fear for the uncertain future, health and economy I felt a stronger determination. I started to study more carefully what platforms were available to artists like me. I read about magazines, scholarships and others to find out what I could do with my painting in the short and long term.
Explain your process
I started painting based on observation and practice and kept repeating this process until certain things became more familiar and easy. When I felt that it was time, I did something more complex.
At the same time, that kind of observation became part of my daily life and I found myself looking at things differently like haunting beautiful moments that have always been among us.
Some of those images stayed with me and I started to play with the idea and shape it in my head. Sometimes I can take photos of those moments and other times they are very fleeting and I just try to file it in my memory or write it down in my notebook.
When the idea is clearer, I put together the set, take photos and try to make drawings and small studies to familiarize myself. I use what I have on hand, spaces from my house and my family of models but when I have had the opportunity and the budget to work on more complex compositions, involving more people, it has been fun to face the challenge
On canvas I like to start with thick, energetic brushstrokes, and rehearse alla prima in the first layers. Thus pushing me to an instinctive gesture and I like to see my evolution on that. I also like to fill the entire space at once which gives me an idea from the beginning of how it will work. Then I thin the brush strokes, with a very dry brush or diluting the oil until to get the depth and the transparencies I desire. I enjoy doing that when I paint flesh and I love seeing it in other artists work, finding out what color they used in the multiple layers to achieve the tone.
What concept or narrative is behind your work?
I've always felt like an outsider. I have managed to deal with all the social phases that we have to go through in life but my tendency has always been to walk on the edge of all that. I suppose that somehow nothing was enough to fill the hole which we are all born with, the nonsense of existing without any purpose, unless you take it as a purpose to eat, work and produce.
My painting is always about that feeling and yet a relief, the only way I can express the dismay and loneliness of being lost in this place, and also a celebration, for the only things we know are true, the family and some people who stay with us, no matter what.
Who is your art crush and why
Throughout these years I have had several crushes, but in the last months it is Nick Alm. It is all about his stroke, his characters, all the decadence mixed with the glamorous life of a high class, in a context of celebration encapsulated in time. His palette expresses a lot of melancholy and loneliness in a crowded world, and has a rich composition without the need to saturate it with elements. I think his work has the perfect dose of sarcasm, romance and nostalgia.
