The point of departure for Katrina Bello’s new series of work on view in the Liminal Space is a quote by British painter Cecily Brown, who said about her work in the February 2013 American Vogue magazine article on her: “I need a source, especially at the beginning, when I’m trying to get under the skin of an image.” Thinking of painting as similar to skin is not a new concept, but the idea of the image as having a skin is something that Bello is trying to understand through this body of work. The work consists of paintings, photographs and video work, and the questions that set the direction of the series are: What are the conceptual and philosophical implications of the image having a skin? How does one formalize this idea? What are the artist’s motivations for doing so?
Katrina Bello is a visual artist whose focus is painting and drawing. She received her MFA in Studio Art at the Maryland Institute College of Art, and has exhibited in the United States and the Philippines. She currently lives in New Jersey. She is an alumna of the Gallery Aferro Studio Residency Program.
Bello writes: ” What is exciting about Brown’s quote is the violation of image and skin’s established conditions. It is with this quote in mind that I am rethinking my series of photographs taken in certain natural environments in the Southwest and Northeast. In it I photographed my hands gouging through sand, grasping boughs, stroking the furrows of petroglyphs. I am reminded of Thomas the Doubter who needed to touch the wound of the resurrected Christ in order to eradicate his doubt and establish belief in the resurrection.”
“Skinning the Image” is on view September 12 – October 26th, 2013 at Gallery Aferro in Newark, NJ. The opening reception is on September 12th, 7 – 10pm.
MFA in Studio Art 