Loreto Riveros

Volcanic rocks are formed from magma and minerals found in volcanos and they are basically sediments of an explosion (that could have happened millions, thousands of years ago). This is a project about found “precious” objects -the paintings consist of small volcanic stones taken from an active volcano, amplified in photography/digitally manipulated and portrayed in oil painting as if they were the most important objects in the world. My “models” address the fragility of nature and its resilience to survive at the same time. Oil on canvas, 30x30 inches each.

Jacundó is a mixed-media project about a fictional journey undertaken by myself, that is displayed as a visual-spatial narrative documentary. In it, I take as reference the serendipitous discovery of the continent of America, and create a fictional alternative, a contemporary parallel world, created digitally and documented as real. ---Digital inkjet prints. B&W images are 12.5 x 20 inches each. Creatures portraits images are 6 x 11 inches each. Book is 4.25 x 5.5 inches. Stone cup is 7 x 5 x 4.5 inches. Gold pendant is 2.25 x 2.25 x 2.25. inches.

From a historic, collective memory of numerous apparitions of the Virgin Mary, the image of the Virgin was installed and disseminated throughout the world by Catholic religion. Here, I construct a digital image of each latin american version of the Virgin Mary. Their uncanny and collaged look is reminiscent of the hybridity of their origin and the hybridity of latin america's identity. ---Digital inkjet prints, 4 x 8 inches each.

This is a series of fake documentary images, playing with the concept of the "document" today, where everything is digitally manipulated. The original black and white photographs -the "real documents"- were found in a trash can in the year 2006. The photographs themselves are undated. I always thought about the owners of these photographs and of their history, so I decided to build a new meaning and memory for them; a new documentation. ---Digital inkjet prints, 10 x 14 inches each.

This project departs from questioning the "model" in contemporary art by experimentation with formal art media and how it relates to digital work. I invite the viewer to reflect and think on what is understood for “real” in visual arts today. In Re Creo, I use three dimensional renders as "models" to produce traditional oil paintings, reflecting on how mimetic from the reality digital images may look, while remaining impossible realities. --- Oil on Canvas, 39.3 x 39.3 inches each.

In this project, I incorporate the concept of information control and power held by communication media, and its affect our world perspective. In "The News" I represent and recreate an image of an event of high impact (political, crime, fashion, or celebrity related) taken from visual media, such as newspapers and the online news sites. Miniature animal toys and hand crafted materials are used to recreate current events, simulating documentary photography. ---Digital inkjet prints, 20 x 30 inches each.

In the same line of thought of Render and Re Creo, this project also refers to the construction of the "model" in art today and how it could be taken from the constructed image rather than "real life". This project is a series of paintings based on the construction of a "self" in the digital world and the incorporation of the "avatar" as a "model" for painting- that once was a classic painted portrait. This paintings are the product of a series of avatars that I asked my contacts in social media networks to make of myself, by using a classic photographic portrait (in the Leonardo's Gioconda pose). The received avatars were traditionally painted in oil on canvas. ---Oil on Canvas, 21 x 30 inches each.

This project departs from questioning the "model" in contemporary art by experimentation with formal art media and how it relates to digital work. I invite the viewer to reflect and think on what is understood for “real” in visual arts today. In Render, I use three dimensional renders as "models" to produce traditional oil paintings, reflecting on how mimetic from the reality digital images may look, while remaining impossible realities. ---Oil on Canvas, 59 x 59 inches each.

It is the sacredness of an ordinary object and the irony of the consume; but not as a critique, more like a consecrate to the product and to the real function it will never have, being a painting, being non physical language. The painting gives value to the image; the object interpretation and its final appearance, make the object seem as a "valuable jewel". The painting becomes a product again, a publicity element of massive and personal consume. The paintings return to the place where they were objects of admiration and contemplation, recovering the lost "soul" of the actual aesthetics. ---Oil on Canvas, 37 x 59 inches each.