Mundos Intimos - Intimate Worlds

With extremely detailed and meticulous lines, Marianela de la Hoz presents her perception of life, in miniature. Technically neat, her miniatures are in egg tempera, on wood, as was usually done in large formats. In each miniature, she writes a legend, which, far beyond explaining what is embodied, sharpens the ironic sense of each piece. And if you really want to understand the detail, pay attention.

Sometimes it's funny how we think that our own life is unique, that no one suffers like we do. And when we realize that there are also others, when we review the circumstances that the other is going through, we realize that yes, perhaps we believe we are individuals, but we are so empathic, so equal, so serial, identity collapses. We are all sick with the same calamities, we are all devoured by the same caterpillar.

The fact that a visual work manages to move so many sensitive fibers, even in the face of satire, to achieve that identification, can only be an indicator of an overwhelming global understanding. How can something so small show us so much? And thus, it makes us feel microscopic, trapped in the enormous universe of the miniaturized.

Microcosmic and meticulously rendered, Marianela de la Hoz's egg tempera paintings and assemblages are intended to enchant their viewers. Their diminutive size forces the spectator to lean in and engage them as an unwitting voyeur, spying on seedy phantasms fixed into surreal dreamscapes. “[They are] an intimate and sometimes terrifying mirror in which I look at myself and you look at yourself, perhaps finding a personal connection in that nearness.” Acutely aware of our current troubled times.