Road to the Sun
Cuban American artist Yolanda Sánchez brings her nature-inspired vision to this springtime exhibition at the Museum of Art – DeLand Downtown Galleries, 100 N. Woodland Blvd. Her colorful, flowing textiles created in the traditional Korean Bojagi-style are displayed alongside her vibrant, floral-inspired paintings.
Nature, in a very broad sense, is Sánchez’s source of inspiration. In a nonintellectual way, she translates and projects thoughts, emotions and sensations into a moment of meeting — working with light, color and mark, and the materiality of the paint itself. She holds a space for the viewer — to enter, to be there, to have a moment of contemplation, and to finish the work, as it were. Subject and object are dissolved and replaced by a presence — a “presence without form.” There is no story to be told, just simply a desire to awaken.
Sánchez’s study and training in calligraphy and a background in dance inform her marks in her painted works. Calligraphy, like dance, is an interaction of movement and pause, energy and stillness. Full of motion, like individual dances of line and form, the marks are a universal aesthetic, conveying a life force, independent of meaning or readability. Rhythm, harmony of opposing forces, a sense of space, purity and mystery, the gestural brushstroke — these qualities make up her process.
Sánchez’s painted work is influenced by poetry, Eastern philosophy and the compositional structures of Chinese and Japanese classical ink painting, generating visual images that integrate drawing, writing and painting. Her interest is not in making art that looks Asian, but in tapping into the energy or power that lies underneath these aesthetics, maintaining nature as the central element and making work that is spiritually infused.
Parallel to the work of other American artists such as Franz Kline, Brice Marden and Cy Twombly, Sanchez endeavors to tap into the dynamic liveliness of the brushstroke and capture its poetic content, blurring the lines between language and visual representation.
Born in Cuba and raised in Miami, Sánchez is a product of that “super syncretic” (Benitez-Rojo) culture, which is the Caribbean. At times not certain of the language she is speaking, she says she improvises and remains open to other influences, like a traveler roaming and crossing borders.
For Sánchez, making art is a way of being present in the world; it is an act of attention. And through this attention, she gives back and offers praise to the world. As such, her work is celebratory, expanding, opening and about offering pleasure.
The exhibit run through Sunday, June 30. Hours are 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, and 1-4 p.m. Sunday. Admission is free for museum members and $10 for nonmembers. Call 386-279-7534, or visit www.moartdeland.org.
— Elise Sigh, associate curator of art and exhibitions
