Art as a Cathartic Exercise
Lilia Luján
Mujeres en el Arte, August 13 |
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Español
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Lilia Luján is a self-taught, multidisciplinary Mexican visual artist, who has been active in the plastic arts since 1995. Her focus is on painting, alternative sculpture, minimalist murals, thematic series of social art, graphics and illustration. In addition to giving workshops and collaborating on various social projects with vulnerable groups, she directed 25 thematic murals and more than 400 national and international exhibitions.
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Artist's Statement
1995. I make the firm decision to take a break from my business activities for ten years in Mexico, and undertake a trip to Europe to dedicate myself exclusively to art for a year. The various personal and professional events are favorably linked. I am seduced by art, music, culture, people, nature and gastronomy; continually motivating me to explore other artistic currents, avant-gardes, reinvent resources, experiment with materials, shapes and textures. I produce and exhibit paintings, alternative sculpture, murals, art-objects, visual poetry, textile designs and installations in all the places and countries that I can. Expressionist figuration, color and matter as a common thread in all my works. The adventure lasts for twelve years.
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2007. I return to Mexico strengthened, enriched on a human level, as an artist and also as a woman, completely convinced that this is the life I want to live, what fulfills me the most and fascinates me, with a lot of desire to continue working in my country. I love Europe, although Mexico fascinates me! I love my roots, this is also reflected in my works, and the viewer invariably perceives it without distinction of nationality, it is clear to me. I have managed to build my own language, timeless, through visual codes, iconography, textures, shapes and colors. The soul and spirit are linked and an interesting connection is made with the observer's emotional map. Seduction begins, complicity, curiosity between "meanings and signifiers", the dialogue becomes passionate with countless readings, the more you feel, the better it is understood, that's how art is.
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2015. My work has diversified wonderfully, without a doubt, "to give is to receive", and it always feeds the soul. Teaching is one of the best experiences I have had, teaching Plastic Arts Workshops and the elaboration of Murals to Children and Adolescents with Cancer, Women with High Risk Pregnancy, Street Girls, Special Children from Primary and Secondary Schools, with themes from UNESCO; such as Peace, Environmental Care, Values, Identity, etc. More than 35 directed murals.
2016. I crystallize with great enthusiasm the project Fundación Lilia Luján, A.C., art with meaning and cause, to contribute to the formation of better human beings through art, focusing our programs essentially on children, adolescents and adults with unequal social conditions.
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2017. Currently I produce works for different projects, paintings and large-format minimalist murals, where the essence is in textures, matter and color. I also continue working in my most characteristic line, the Figurative Expressionist, series "Informalismos", very material pieces, with mixed techniques and collage. I also recently finished the Metropolis series of Alternative Sculptures, inspired by the architecture of Dubai, all mixed media, with acrylic paint, fabric, paper, wood, glass, metals, sand, marble dust, mirrors, cork, pigments, resins, among many other materials.
2018-2019. I am moving to live in Puebla City, Mexico. With the idea of improving the quality of life in a quieter place, living a little more with my family and exploring new professional horizons. The landing, installation and adaptation took time, perhaps a little more than contemplated, although I finally started with the whole pile. I have focused on new paintings, murals and digital art themed series, exhibitions and mandala workshops. The expectations of the change have not turned out 100 as I thought, the work rate has decreased, and it has worsened with the start of the Covid-19 Pandemic in the middle of December, 2019.
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2020. Given the countless cancellation of projects, I have focused on international calls, and production of thematic series of digital art on Human Rights, Climate Change, Culture of Peace, Gender Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, Migration, etc. Every time I feel more committed to these issues, concerned about daily events. I believe that we artists have the duty and commitment to use this valuable tool to generate change, shake consciences, send a positive provocation, and at the same time proactive, through art.
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2021. The pandemic impact in the world is becoming stronger, new infections, deaths and the inevitable fall of the economy, among many other things. While science works at full speed on a vaccine. Undoubtedly a year of great learning, home office and resilience, for the vast majority. Tried to carry in the best way, an unprecedented fact in our existence.
I work on a wide collection of Digital Art works: Pandemia, La Transformación. With the intention of generating a visual record of how human beings are living the confinement around the world. These are various corners, places of confinement that offer people a temporary escape route during confinement. It is also a great recognition to the health personnel, vital in this critical situation.
The proposal aims to incite a root social change, shake consciences, reflect, reconnect and evaluate what is truly important. It is a testimony that explores through visual codes, intimacies, energies, feelings and emotions. There is also space for silhouettes, shades, textures, colors and signs that emphasize the poetic and spiritual charge of the images. With Covid-19, we have suddenly been naked, we have faced our weaknesses, as well as we have had to enhance our strengths, to come out ahead. The final reading, we are all the same, souls in search, beings in the process of evolution, the rest is smoke.
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"My work is basically a cathartic exercise, where I try to combine all the elements in harmony and balance. Intuition, experimentation and aesthetics are the basis of my technique. The root of my plastic vision, my own essence, my senses..."
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www.instagram.com/lujanartstudio
https://www.facebook.com/lilialujan2012
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Selected among other things, in:
- Research Conference on Ethnology and Cultural Policies University of Jyväskylä, Finland. 2022
-Studio Next. "Black & White" International art exhibition 2022-2023. India
-16th International Print Triennale Graphica Creativa 2022. Finland
- ACMC22 5TH EDITION- Arts & Cultural Management Conference Network 2022.
University of Deusto, Bilbao, Spain. Virtual exhibition of thematic artistic works.
-II International Poster Award MAKMA- Order / Disorder, 2021. MUVIM-Valencian Museum of ii-illustrator and modernity. Spain
-Culture 2.0 Festival 2021. ACCAC Accessible Art and Culture Finland
-Shanghai International Paper Art Biennale 2021, Fengxian Museum.
-1st Place Category Award: Book graphics: Illustration. XII "St. Petersburg Art Week 2021", Russia.
-Social Art Award 2021-New Greening. The book special edition. Berlin
-International Human Rights Art Festival 2021. NY City. Us
- Finalist Award a! Design Edition XX-XX, category Social Covid-19 graphic. México
-A New Poetics of Space: Literary Walks in times of Pandemics and Climate Change 2020. Mid Sweden University, Sundsvall, Sweden.
Virtual exhibition of thematic artistic Works.
-3RD International Print Biennale SKOPJE, Macedonia, 2020. DLUM – Association of Artists of Macedonia. Greece
-IV Textile Meeting of Zaragoza "Hulaki: Mutaciones", 2020. Spain.
-International Exhibition "HUMAN RIGHTS? The shape of the future
#WomenCanSaveTheWorld 2020. International Association of Plastic Arts Fondazione Opera Campana dei Caduti - Rovereto -Trento, Aiap-UNESCO, Italy.
-Simultaneous International Exhibition "Latin America, what unites us" 2020. National Committees of the Latin America and Caribbean Region of the AIAP-UNESCO.
-PHILATELIC. First Edition June 2020. Art & Diffusion Club. Buenos Aires, Argentina.
-"Art on the Net" 2020. International Virtual Art Exhibition. House of America. Madrid Spain.
-International Inspiration Day Fest 2020, STUDIORDD. Israel.
-International Exhibition of Contemporary Art-HUMAN RIGHTS? # CLIMA- THE 2019 EDITION, International Association of Plastic Arts Italy, Fondazione Opera Campana dei Caduti - Rovereto - Trento, Aiap-UNESCO, Italy.
-INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PEACE, September 21, 2018. UNESCO, headquarters Paris, France. Thematic works: "Drones & Robots at the Service of Peace".
-Selected artist in the 6th Beijing International Art Biennale "Memory and Dream", National Art Museum of China. 2015.
Recent Exhibitions
Matilde Tamayo Foundation-Galería Centro Cultural Montjuic (Barcelona, Spain), Casa de América (Madrid, Spain), Museo Tecnológico de Monterrey (Puebla), SEGOB (Secretary of the Interior Cd.Mx.), GB Gallery, WTC (International Center of Exhibitions and Conventions), Torre Mayor, Centro Libanés-Hérmes, Alianza Francesa, Centro Asturiano-Polanco, Pemex, National Lottery, SEP (Secretariat of Public Education), Chamber of Deputies, Radio Education, SCT (Secretariat of Communications and Transportation), University of Guanajuato, José Luis Cuevas Museum, Camino Real Hotel, Soumaya-Carso Museum, X Espacio de Arte Gallery, Infonavit Gallery, National Museum of Anthropology, Liverpool, Secretary of Economy Gallery, Mexico-Israel Institute, Museum of Modern Art, among others.
Works in Museums and Institutions
Her works are part of the Artistic Heritage of the Autonomous University of Madrid and the University of Alcalá, in Spain. Javier de la Rosa Poet Museum, in Gran Canaria; Museum of the Americas, in Miami, and Piag Museum, in Florida, USA. Claudio León Sempere-Museum of Fine Arts, in Buenos Aires and Alma Fuerte Museum, in La Plata, Argentina, El Peñol Historical Museum, in Antioquia, Colombia, Ronald McDonald Foundation –Mexico, Monterrey Technological Museum; as well as the Municipal Museum of Ovar, the Diocennial Museum of Lamego, the Municipal Museum of Macieira de Cambra in Portugal, the National Art Museum of China and Fengxian Museum, Shamghai.
Publications
Five books published: Contemporary Art, Lilia Luján (2007 Editorial Centro Urbano, Mexico, DF), Mexican Huichol Art and its Mandalas (2008 MTM Editores, Barcelona, Spain.), Luján-Minimal Art-artistbook (2011 Editorial Centro Urbano, Mexico , DF), Mundo Azteca, modern designs for coloring (2011 MTM Editores, Barcelona, Spain.) And (2012 V&R Editores, México, DF)
Shee also regularly collaborates with her work in various national and international publications on art, culture, design, interior design and architecture. As well as in residential, corporate, institutional and commercial decoration projects.
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Saturday, August 13, 5-7pm
Gallery Calderoni, Fabrica la Aurora
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