AUGUSTA — The sculptures and paintings of Wylie Garcia explore identity, gender and emotional spaces through a visual language of curvilinear forms and bold colors that link her works across media. Garcia’s work has appeared in solo and group exhibitions across the U.S. and she has held art residencies as far away as the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing.
She previously showed her work in a group exhibition in Maine in 2014, but “Radical Softness” is Garcia’s first solo exhibition in Maine. The exhibition in UMA’s Danforth Gallery spans a decade of work, featuring her sculptural dresses of rich satins and gauze, subtle drawings in graphite and gouache, and recent monumental paintings resembling textiles and tapestries. This focused look at a decade of artistic practice demonstrates Garcia’s encompassing vision across media and her engagement with the personal as political.
The show gets its name from the quote by poet Lora Mathis, “Radical Softness as a Weapon.” Garcia purchased a shirt with the quote on it, and it has since become a part of her art-making uniform. Mathis describes radical softness as “the idea that unapologetically sharing your emotions is … a way to combat the societal idea that feelings are a sign of weakness.”
In relation to this exhibition and to her art-making process, Garcia refers to the Mathis quote as “a reminder for me that I am strongest when I tap into my softness … when I give a voice to my vulnerability … [when I] connect to something beyond myself.” The nearly 20 works on view in the Danforth Gallery allow viewers to wander among what she calls “emotional landscapes […] of people and places and ideas that are dear to me and this moment in my life.”
Born and raised in Texas, Garcia now lives in Burlington, Vermont. She earned her BA at the University of Chicago and her MFA at Massachusetts College of Art and Design, and in 2016 she won the yearly Barbara Smail Fellowship and Award from the Burlington City Arts. The same year, she won a Creation Grant from the Vermont Arts Council. She was recently awarded a prestigious Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant.
“Radical Softness” is on display from Nov. 20 to Dec. 19, and the public is welcome to visit the Danforth Gallery in Jewett Hall, which is generally open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays to Thursdays and from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Fridays. Follow Danforth Gallery on https://www.facebook.com/danforthgallery/ and visit at http://artsuma.com/.
Wylie Garcia, Flowers = Trust Your Instincts, 2019, acrylic on bleached cotton, 74″ x 56″ Photo courtesy of Wylie Garcia
Wylie Garcia, “Her Body Bends Like A Tent on Fire,” 2015, ink, graphite, and gouache on paper, 22″ x 30″ Photo courtesy of Wylie Garcia
Wylie Garcia, “Chameleon,” 2009, mixed media, 66″ x 18″ x 18″ Photo courtesy of Wylie Garcia
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