Gabriela Benítez
Within and Beyond the Canvas

Gabriela Benítez is an Argentinean artist who has been living in Canada for more than 20 years. Through the search of a relevant reason to return to the country –beyond the emotional bonds–, she decided to do a residency at ´ace. Through a micro-Residency, Gabriela learned new printmaking techniques that allowed her to continue and enrich her particular way of working in which she gives space to chance and to the playful.

WITHIN AND BEYOND THE CANVAS (by Gabriela Martínez)

In much of my recent work, I play with the combination of direct action and spontaneous performance in painting and printing. In doing so, I seek to explore various mediums, almost as if they were extensions of my body. I let myself be carried away by the artistic process; my actions, rather than my thoughts, guide me, mediating between my inner and outer worlds. My paintings are often complemented with photographs, printed plates and collages, which together reflect this ‘otherness’ that inhabits my images. The different elements flow into, and out of, one another, as traces of a dialogue between body, mind, and canvas.

The idea of ‘within and beyond’ refers to working in different physical and geographical environments, where I have the feeling of being an insider and an outsider at the same time. These feelings, I believe, can affect our psycho-geographies in numerous ways, variously deconstructing and reconstructing our patterns of behaviour and communication.