10 Questions with Silvia Felizia

Silvia Felizia is a contemporary abstract artist born and raised in Argentina and currently resides in the United States. She studied Graphic Design in Buenos Aires and worked in the industry as a freelance artist until moving abroad in the mid-1990s.
During her first years away from her home country, Silvia started self-educating in visual arts and painting. Later, while living in Thailand, she learned the ancient techniques of mosaic art, which she mastered after years of practice and continues to apply to some of her paintings. With a rich harmony of texture and color, she builds layer upon layer to showcase the entire creative process, forming bridges of interaction between memories, emotions, and experiences.
Abstract and emotive, strong and vulnerable, Felizia’s body of work is drawn from her life story and the many places she has lived, including Buenos Aires, Kyiv, Bangkok, London, and Houston.
Silvia has been selected for exhibitions on contemporary art platforms and galleries like UNT CoLab Gallery, Galería Azur Miami, Envision Arts Show, Visionary Art Collective, Artspace111 Gallery - Texas Now 2022, Visionary Projects New York, and Lohme Art Gallery.
Her work is published in art books and magazines in Europe and America, including Art Folio 2022, Art Anthology V Madrid Edition, United Women Artists, Envision Arts Magazine, Thought Art Magazine, Artist Talk, Goddess Arts, Art Seen, Art Walk Magazine, and can be found in private collections around the globe.

silviafelizia.com | @silviafelizia

ARTIST STATEMENT

Felizia’s art has become her voice. Each time she starts a new piece, it is like starting a new journey. During the creative process, she feels limitless freedom to travel to other times and places, crisscrossing the present with the past. She goes back to the Argentina of her youth to rediscover paths with new eyes and a more mature perspective. She wants to be honest with herself and communicate the continuous search for equilibrium between her Latinx origins and the pull toward the countries where she lived later in adulthood.
In her work, there is always a dialogue of movement, stillness, silence, and noise, starting as a private and intimate feeling that then opens into a universal emotion in which the viewer can immerse themselves.

Silvia says: “My pieces can be read as maps of emotional landscapes with a story behind them. They are inspired by humanitarian crises, political and social issues, experiences I have been exposed to, and everything that surrounds me.
I am exploring life’s rhythm, writing my own story and the story of others. I am moved by what I see, feel, believe and remember. I paint what is happening in the world - all the beauty and all the horror”.

When working on paper or canvas, she paints, scrapes, and paints again, adding vitality and drama with layers over layers that are rich in texture and color. Forming geometric and organic figures, she covers and rebuilds what was created before, giving birth to lines that will interact and travel through the surface. This results in chaos for some of the pieces, while others are very calm, reflecting her own state of mind during the creation process. Some colors are more present than others. The shades of earth tones reveal the relationship with nature and the necessity to be grounded. The color green represents the color of rebirth, expressing that human beings have the power to reinvent themselves in all the stages of their lives and to conquer their quests. The color pink represents tenderness and sensitivity. All blue tones represent the connection with all the unknown. The white box is the unifying shape present in each composition. They are irregular, imperfect, and all different, representing life as irregular and imperfect as it is. And it is open, symbolizing the privilege that some people have to explore freedom.

Felizia’s work talks about the presence - and the power - of art made by women who can tell different stories than their male counterparts, or the same stories but from other points of view, and rethink how women see their lives in the current world and keep growing no matter what society and stereotypes dictate, bringing a different dimension of liberation and knowledge.

INTERVIEW

First of all, introduce yourself to our readers. Who are you, and how did you start experimenting with images?

I am a contemporary abstract artist from Argentina currently residing in the United States. I studied and worked as a graphic designer in my mid-twenties while living in Buenos Aires. Later, when I moved to the US, I started self-educating in the visual arts. In the beginning, I was strongly influenced by the ingenuity of the Bauhaus movement and the modernism of Japanese corporate designs from the eighties. I also used to obsessively study the works of Gustav Klimt, Joan Miró, and Wassily Kandinsky. Then I started to focus more on artists like Joan Mitchell, Georgia O’Keeffe, Yayoi Kusama, and Carmen Herrera, who still impact my everyday art practice. 
Looking back through the years, my first pieces were geometric and minimal, even going so far as resembling logotypes. Later, my pieces evolved into busy patterns of organic shapes, and eventually, my work circled back to minimalism, but in a different style than those first years.

You have traveled and lived in different countries and had many different experiences throughout your career. How would you define yourself as an artist today? 

I am a visual storyteller. I am an artist that grows and evolves with every move I make in life. Each time I moved to a different country, I reinvented myself. This was a mechanism I used to adjust to a new place and a new way of living. Sometimes I pursued that reinvention, and other times it was completely unintentional. All the countries I lived in had a big impact on my inner self, and that is reflected in my work.
Today I am a person that makes a considerable effort to understand her own culture and the culture of others. I seek to communicate my own ideas and the ideas of my neighbors, tell my stories and the stories of others, and always be honest with myself and loyal to my Latinx origins.

What is one experience that particularly influenced and inspired your work as an artist? 

There are a handful of experiences that stick out to me and influence my work. Of these, the events of the Maidan Revolution in Ukraine were, and still are, a strong influence on my art. At that time, Kyiv was my home: my family and I were living in the city center, and we witnessed the horror that was happening there. During those months, I created several pieces. The result was a body of work that is a complete contradiction of its own: some pieces are vivid and glowing, showcasing how I saw the city before the revolution, while others are obscure in order to reflect a feeling of hopelessness and deep sadness, a feeling that remains today because of the war. 
Another big impact on my work is the never-ending humanitarian crisis at the border between the United States and Mexico, where thousands of people from all corners of the world are seeking asylum. In this case, my approach is different: I want to celebrate the lives of those people, honoring the beauty and richness of their cultures. This results in vibrant and colorful pieces that, even though they emerge from sad stories, are not sad to the eye. And currently, I am focused on keeping my own memories alive and honoring the woman I am. 

Can you tell us about the process of creating your work? What is your artistic routine when working?

I worked surrounded by complete silence, undisturbed by the clutter of foreign noises. It is easier to identify the ideas and feelings of what I want to express if my studio is totally quiet. 
The stories I want to share are emotionally charged: some are optimistic, others are hopeless, and that range is reflected in my creations. 
I go back to my origins with limitless freedom. I connect memories, emotions, and experiences to discover past paths with new eyes and a more mature perspective. 
Engaging my whole body and mind in the process and inspired by everyday experiences, nature, humanitarian crises, political and social issues, and even dreams and desires, I start my day.

You work with layers, juxtaposing different colors, textures, and materials. How did you evolve this way of working? 

It was a natural evolution. Over the years, I became more conscious of the power of color, and I am freer than before. I am not afraid to work with an abundance of shapes, bringing a mixture of busy patterns with sharply defined lines all arranged with chaotic rhythm. That makes it possible to showcase my entire process, where all the visual elements dialogue with each other. And I am not afraid of covering what I built before in order to start reconstructing the piece.

In your painting, you always include a white geometric shape that is not close though. What is the meaning behind this figure, and what do you want to communicate to the viewers? 

This is a body of work I have been working on for the last two years, and it is still evolving. It reflects my perspective on aging, maturing, and growing. The open white box symbolizes that women have the opportunity to explore the freedom that comes with age without being apologetic about our choices. 
I aim to reflect that we can bloom at any age. Maturing is a natural path for every human being and can give us a different dimension of liberation and knowledge. These boxes, which are all different, are an invitation to keep moving forward along life’s rhythm and to follow our calling at any age. This is because age is not an impediment but rather a new opportunity to see life more clearly. I want to say that we should and must keep growing no matter what society and stereotypes dictate.
In the end, my paintings will become the viewer’s, and they will see in them their own journey, no matter the destination.  

Your abstract paintings have vivid and striking colors. How do you choose your palette, and what does it represent for you?

The shades of earth tones express my connection with nature and the necessity to be grounded. The color green represents the color of rebirth, expressing that women have the power to reinvent themselves in all the stages of their lives. The color pink represents tenderness and sensitivity, feelings we should - and must - have towards others and ourselves. The shades of blue represent my connection with the unknown and the spirituality that is part of us. This results in chaos for some of the pieces, while others are very calm, depending on my own state of mind during the creation process. 

Do you find that the shift to digital exhibitions and art fairs has helped you promote your work?

Yes, digital exhibitions and art fairs gave me the possibility to reach broader audiences, from every corner of the world, mainly during the last few years. 

What do you think about the art community and market? And what are your strategies to engage with the market?

Everything is changing so quickly. Life is going faster than ever, and people will need more and more to be in touch with creativity. I see this as a big opportunity for all of us, but I also feel that upcoming artists are not valued enough. It is very difficult to be recognized.
I am also learning the rules that change every day when it comes to promoting our work online.
But I cannot complain, I have seen my work recognized in specialized art publications from Europe and the USA, and that is opening doors that had been closed before.

What are you working on now, and what are your plans for the future? Anything exciting you can tell us about? 

I am very excited about starting a collaboration with a gallery in Miami for an exhibition in the last months of this year. And most importantly, I will keep creating because it keeps me alive. I want to celebrate life, with all its ups and downs, while being true to myself. And I want to keep telling stories and share them with my audience.