MARIANELA DE LA HOZ

Marianela de la Hoz was born in Mexico in 1956. In 1978 she received her BA from the Metropolitan University in Mexico City.

De la Hoz’s art could be best described as a reality portraiture set in fantastic theatrical scenes, an intimate and sometimes terrifying mirror in which she looks at herself and the viewers look at themselves, perhaps finding some personal connection in that nearness. Her paintings are intimate, like the lockets in which the portrait of the loved one, or a wisp of hair, is kept. They recreate an internal world; as if to expose the recesses within small drawers of a wardrobe where one might keep their grievances and happiness. Representations of profound feelings – love and hate, sins, dreams, secrets, or guilt – taken out once in a while similar to a photo album with images of our history and reality.

With her work, De la Hoz invites the observers into a miniature world with a magnifying glass to come closer to discover the fine details, and once they are near they will remain captive, getting inside and enlightening the mechanisms of their conscience, giving them the opportunity to fix their eyes in those details we often leave unnoticed. De la Hoz analyzes every painting without moral judgments, she only observes its composition, and hence the small formats – as if to say size is not what really matters in a work of art. De La Hoz’s audience is captivated by the minuscule details that are the reflex that builds little by little much like one’s own life.

Her artworks express the binds, the closures, the dual morale, the atavisms, the “must be”, the separation of body and soul, of body and head. She expresses violence through fantasy, black humor and sarcasm. The content of her work is based on reality and the paintings confront today's troubled times. She is inspired by the blood ligatures among human beings, the same weaknesses, addictions and worries, the eternal combination of good and bad in each and every one.

For more than 20 years Marianela has participated in solo and group exhibits in Mexico and the United States.