Meet one of Brooklyn's finest, Tamara Santibañez. As a multimedia artist and well-respected resident amongst many at Saved Tattoo New York, Tamara embodies more than meets the eye.
Known for representations of objects such as handcuffs, whips, chains and leather, Tamara's work is rooted in subcultural symbolism, drawing from the worlds of punk, fetish, Chicano art, and tattooing. She questions the weight that these types of objects hold as symbols for unspoken shorthand in specific cultures and asks the viewer to confront their own assumptions about their subversive notoriety or sexual innuendo.
Tamara’s work has created social mindfulness and aims to defeat ignorance in the eyes of fear and judgement. Here debut solo show "Landscapes", showing at Slow Culture Los Angeles opened on Friday, with a wide range of large-scale paintings that survey the terrain and texture of leather. Her paintings are monumental and immersive, and this is what the artists had to say about the new show.
“I primarily paint objects that are my own and have seen years of wear. A form of self-portraiture, these studies of leather are diaristic - my paintings map my body, wants and desires. The large-scale pieces focus on unrecognizable parts, separating the material from its intended purpose and forcing it to take on an abstract quality. I ask viewers to question the whole and ultimately what lies underneath.
This series of paintings is in many ways my most personal and revealing to date. The labor and time-intensiveness of creating them was a practice of devotion; a process through which to deepen my understanding of my own relationship to the material. They represent to me a bare intimacy, stripped down to the flesh, and an attempt to explain a complex emotional relationship that viewers can encounter and engage with themselves.”
Watch the in the studio video made by Obey about Tamara's new show.
