Emotional Vocabulary By Maria Paula Suarez
Maria Paula Suarez
Emotional Vocabulary, Installation View
Miyako Yoshinaga Gallery
EMOTIONAL VOCABULARY
A POP-UP EXHIBITION BY MARIA PAULA SUAREZ, MIYAKO YOSHINAGA GALLERY, AUGUST 2023
WRITTEN BY SOFÍA FESTA
Every individual navigates their own personal journey uniquely, intertwined with the context they inhabit. In Maria Paula's case, since she settled in New York from her native Colombia, it has been a path of self-discovery and introspection that has yielded the blossoming of her artistic technique. She translates her everyday emotions into texts, often of her authorship, and then adapts them into artworks. Delving into Latin American literature, Suárez extracts fragments that unveil her innermost thoughts while carefully highlighting chosen words through the medium of embroidery on paper to create new concepts that resonate with her experiences.
Emotional Vocabulary represents a tribute to the inherent potential of language as a means for profound emotional expression. Suárez's artistic process, rooted in the act of writing, unfolds as an introspective dialogue with her everyday feelings. Through techniques encompassing collage, embroidery, and colored pencil on paper, her artworks are a manifestation of her contemplative process.
In The Gift of Imperfection series, she engages in meticulous calligraphy work before sewing each letter onto sandpaper. In Connection, a mist of color with different hues in pencil surrounds the words “Connection over Comparison,” enacting a simultaneously unsettling and subtle statement that can be related to the inward challenges we sometimes find ourselves trapped in. Throughout this series, she skillfully weaves mistakes into her creative process, resulting in artworks that embody both vulnerability and resilience, a feature that can also be seen in the materiality of her pieces.
“Suárez’s artistic process, rooted in the act of writing, unfolds as an introspective dialogue with her everyday feelings.”
The botanical illustration is also characteristic of her work, using flowers as an analogy to love. These blooms hold a more profound significance to her, symbolizing not just ephemeral beauty but also the enduring essence of the present moment. Through her art, she immortalizes their brief existence, the vibrant beauty of their peak, and their vivid colors before the inevitable decline.
Through her artworks, Maria Paula Suárez offers viewers a lens into lessons learned, cherished experiences, and quiet concerns contemplated. This combination of text and embroidery is an invitation to connect with universal feelings and shared experiences. It is not just a glance into her thoughts; it offers new ways to understand ourselves. Overcoming challenges, she brings her inner world to life, and Emotional Vocabulary is the realization of her journey.
