Catalina Viejo Lopez de Roda

In my dreams and memories of experiencing female intimacy, I encounter younger, future, and wild versions of myself who reside deep within my subconscious. These women are reflected in the figures I paint. Surrounded by expansive yet intimate built environments —deceptively lush yet potentially dangerous— these female forms exist as embodiments of the ungraspable, characterized by the elusiveness of the wild woman archetype. These figures are abstracted allusions to my anxieties as I navigate my existential inquiries.

The tension between flat painting and sculptural protrusions aims to distort the viewers’ perception of space, reality, and sensory experience. I disrupt the viewer’s expectations of voyeuristic access to their bodies. My work fluctuates between simulating the desire for control and an acceptance of its very impossibility. The figures, engulfed by their circumstances, remain confident, trusting, and in a state of surrender. If we find a home from within, it is easier to accept that we have no control over our environment, but we have a choice in how we respond. We become aware that we are part of the natural cycles occurring all around us; we don’t need to be afraid— moving past the what-ifs, we get on with it.

BIO

Catalina Viejo Lopez de Roda was born in Malaga, but raised in the Canary Islands, Spain. Viejo Lopez de Roda currently lives and works in Hudson, NY. She holds an MFA from Hunter College, NY and a BFA from Montserrat College of Art, Beverly, MA.

Recent exhibitions include Self Care at HallSpace in Boston, MA (2022); MHRI at Albany Center Gallery, Albany, NY (2022), Illuminated, Project Gallery V, New York, NY (2021) and Shaved Ice, Proto Gomez, New York, NY (2021). Other exhibitions include Flat File Program, Tiger Strikes Asteroid, Brooklyn, NY; Representing Rainbows, GP Presents, New York, NY and Double Visions at the Art Complex Museum in Duxbury, MA.

In 2022 she received a grant from the Puffin Foundation and was interviewed by the Women United Art Movement after being selected as a finalist for the Women United Art Prize. In 2022 she was interviewed by Chronogram and her artwork was on their March cover. In 2021 she was interviewed and featured on the cover of Dig Boston for her Self Care exhibition. Her work has been covered by publications including; The Boston Globe, Hyperallergic, Artscope, The Brooklyn Rail, The Brooklyn Paper and Vanity Fair Italia. She has received numerous fellowships to attend artist residencies, including; Residency 108, Germantown, NY, Jentel Arts, Sheridan, WY and Saltonstall, Ithaca, NY.