Patricia Araujo bei artists.de - Künstler, Kunst und Kunstwerke

Patricia Araujo

United States

www.AbstractMetropolis.com

category: Painting
technique: Oilpainting
Style: Modern

Statement:
For over a decade, I\\\'ve painted the architecture of San Francisco\\\'s South of Market and Mid-Market neighborhoods. While living in downtown San Francisco I found myself enchanted by the rich architectural history of that area and the decayed beauty that remains. I\\\\\\\'ve continued to paint facades of iconic city landmarks, some of them refurbished and put back into active use, some of them still-handsome abandoned buildings.

Those paintings are my celebration of a suddenly rich city that looked to an ever-expanding future. Since 2008 I\\\\\\\'ve developed a new series of paintings, Tomorrowland Today. The newer series was inspired by futuristic, classical, and industrial architecture; the specific point of departure was finding photographs of circus arenas in Romania and Ukraine. The structures I\\\\\\\'ve brought together in these paintings also include coliseums, citadels, and roller coasters. Through the creative process, I can celebrate an invented landscape in which each edifice is a monumental element in an imagined new reality.

My father was an architect and worked for Walt Disney Imagineering during the 1970s and 1980s, and while I was a child I visited Disney World every summer. It was there that I was first fascinated by amusement parks. I am still captivated by Disney’s Epcot Center and the Florida version of Tomorrowland, and in particular by the Space Mountain ride, which has become an American icon for kids and adults.

I see resemblances between Space Mountain and another structure, a circus building in the city of Dnepr, Ukraine, a city that became Russia\\\\\\\'s major center of steel production early in the 20th century. Dnepr has also been an important center of aerospace and nuclear-weapons development; in that sense it is a city of the technological future. Not an amusement-park Tomorrowland, but a real one. There are similarities between the two buildings\\\\\\\' design and also in their function as places of entertainment. For this series I have created my own version of the Dnepr circus building, which appears as a spaceship and recurs in many of these paintings, acting as a unifying element.

My Tomorrowland paintings highlight the exteriors of complete structures, but also depict architectural fragments and decorative elements. Their style, another unifying element in this series, is largely abstract. Individual elements have sharp, precise edges, highlighted by bright, flat colors. The style has more in common with the abstraction of architectural drawing than with realistic painting.

These imaginary cityscapes are a mixture of old and new constructions from various places, East and West. I have sought to bring centuries of utopianism and hope for the future together in a fantasized present, as that present might be created in an architect\\\\\\\'s or a painter\\\\\\\'s vision. Designing an amusement park for Disney Imagineering has something in common with designing the new landscape of the aerospace industry, and by now the futuristic designs of both Disney and aerospace have become part of the human imagination.

Bio / Resumee / Statement:
Patricia Araujo was born in Miami, Florida, the daughter of Colombian parents. Her father worked as an architect at Walt Disney, and during his last years he assisted with the development of Epcot Center. Araujo grew up in Bogota, Colombia. She began drawing at a very early age, always intrigued by architecture and form. After completing high school in Bogota, she moved to Northern California at the age of 19 and studied architecture, painting, and photography. In 2005 she obtained her second B.F.A in Painting, from the San Francisco Art Institute.

Araujo has been painting San Francisco’s central city architecture for over a decade. Her interest in the Mid-Market neighborhood continues, addressing the themes of urban growth and decay. She has been exhibiting in San Francisco since 1998. In 2008 she published her first book, entitled SOMA SEEN. Her work has been written about in the San Francisco Chronicle, ARTslant, Beyondchron, and the San Francisco Bay Guardian. She lives and works in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Activities:

	Dnepr (Soft focus) Painting 51 x 61 cm 2010 not for sale more information
	NEW CITY Painting Oilpainting 153 x 122 cm 2010 Price: 2.600 Euro more information
	Dnepr Wonderland Painting Oilpainting 153 x 122 cm 2010 Price: 2.600 Euro more information
	Mini Futur II Painting Oilpainting 51 x 61 cm 2009 Price: 895 Euro more information
	Dnepr V Painting Oilpainting 51 x 61 cm 2009 Price: 895 Euro more information
	Dnepr II Painting Oilpainting 51 x 61 cm 2009 Price: 895 Euro more information
	Dnepr III Painting Oilpainting 51 x 61 cm 2009 Price: 895 Euro more information
	Dnepr Painting Oilpainting 51 x 61 cm 2008 Price: 895 Euro more information
	Dnepr, Phase One Painting Oilpainting 51 x 61 cm 2008 sold more information
	The Meeting Painting Oilpainting 92 x 122 cm 2008 Price: 1.358 Euro more information
	Mini Futur Painting Oilpainting 61 x 46 cm 2008 Price: 895 Euro more information
	Carousel Wonderland Painting Oilpainting 153 x 122 cm 2009 Price: 2.600 Euro more information
	Carousel Painting Oilpainting 122 x 92 cm 2008 Price: 1.358 Euro more information
	Futur II Painting Oilpainting 51 x 61 cm 2008 Price: 895 Euro more information
	Futur Painting Oilpainting 92 x 122 cm 2008 Price: 1.358 Euro more information