Tatiana Garmendia

Think of me as a visual Jungian. For over a decade my work has explored identity as a varied and hybrid representation, centralizing the figure as the site where myths, archetypes, and histories from different communal fonts collide.

Most recently I am preoccupied with the Philosopher’s Stone archetype. Alchemists called the furnaces or ovens in which base matter was transmuted into gold the “House of the Chick” and “the womb”. This play of words intrigued me, imagining the liminal undomesticated body of the bride as a site of distortion, heat, pressure, and transformation.

I began the series by distorting images of the bride using mirrors, reflections, and collaged materials. I set these experiments up in the studio and paint. Each is a liminal imago– dissolving and coming into focus all at once.

Formally, I think of these as Cubism 3.0– engaging aspects of Analytical and Synthetic Cubism through a feminist lens and a nod to Pop. Injecting the patriarchal formalism of that seminal movement with mythic content. Reimagining the female form and her historic erasure as the actual source of value and meaning.

Pratt Institute of Art, Brooklyn, NY (M.F.A.)
Florida International University, Miami, FL (B.F.A.)
School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
Miami Dade Community College, Miami, FL (A.A.)
American University in Paris, Paris, France

Solo Shows:
2020 HER KIND; Tatiana Garmendia, Sarah Spurgeon Gallery, CWU, Ellensburg,
2019 HIGHWALL, 2-person screening, Inscape Arts, Seattle, WA
2017 EVERYTHING PASSES EVERYTHING STAYS, Steele Gallery, Gage Academy, Seattle, WA
QUEROR, Lynwood City Hall, Lynnwood, WA
2014 ARDIENTE PACIENCIA: THE LOVERS, Milagro Theater Gallery, Portland OR
2013 TATIANA GARMENDIA: THE GARDEN OF JOYS, Patricia Cameron Gallery, Seattle, WA
THE VEILS OF IGNORANCE, M. Rosetta Hunter Gallery, SCCC, Seattle, WA
LAMENT/PRESERVE, South Seattle Community College Art Gallery, Seattle, WA
EPIC REDUX, Aarting.com, New York, NY
2012 THE LAST JUDGMENT, The Art Gallery at Lower Columbia College, Rose Center for the Arts, Longview, WA
2010 GARMENDIA: THE TURNING POINT, Moses Lake Museum & Art Center, Moses Lake, WA
2009 TATIANA GARMENDIA: EPIC, Monarch Studio, Seattle, WA
2007 TATIANA GARMENDIA: SHADOW DRAWINGS, Olympic College, Bremerton WA
2006 HEKATE (installation for The Vagina Monologues), Erickson Theatre, Seattle, WA
2005 BODY CONSCIOUS: TATIANA GARMENDIA DRAWINGS, Alden B. Dow Museum of Science and Art, Midland Center for the Arts, Midland, MI
2002 PHYSICAL REVELATIONS, Fine Arts Gallery, Seminole Community College, Sanford, FL
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