“Cuerpo hambriento” (2022), acrylic on canvas, 66 x 52 inches. All images © Cristina Camacho, shared with permission
Cristina Camacho likens canvas stretched across a skeletal frame to skin. Both a protectant and a site for expression, the flesh is one of many layers within the body that the artist peels back to reveal what lies beneath and within. “When I first started cutting the canvas, I was very interested in stopping seeing the canvas as the surface where the paint goes,” she tells Colossal.
In Carne, a series of symmetrical paintings sliced and sculpted into three-dimensional forms, Camacho expands on her earlier bodies of work that explore universal themes around female anatomy, shame, and healing. After being diagnosed with a rare disease and realizing her chances of becoming a mother were limited, though, she began to turn toward the personal, creating as part of reckoning with life-altering news. “My relationship with the work really changed because it became a tool for healing and for understanding how I was feeling both emotionally and physically with my symptoms and my fears,” she says. “The idea was to have a catharsis of my symptoms.”
Standing upwards of five feet, the size of the paintings mirror the artist’s body to allow the viewer to meet each piece face to face. Soft shapes and lines emerge from a central point, and sometimes, Camacho weaves floral motifs into the canvas. “It’s a self-portrait of my own experience,” she adds.
The artist recently returned to Bogotá after several years in New York, where she’s spending time experimenting in her studio. Although many works begin with precise, delicate grids she draws with a ruler, the rest of the process is more fluid and intuitive. A self-described perfectionist, Camacho considers the act of carving the canvas an exercise in letting go. ” I never know how it’s going to fall, how it’s going to look when I put it back in the wall because I cut them over a table,” she says. “When I put it back on the wall, the canvas just falls, and the painting comes to life.”
Find more of Carne on the artist’s website and follow her latest works on Instagram.
“Abismo hacia la nada” (2023), acrylic on canvas, 66 x 52 inches
Detail of “Cuerpo hambriento” (2022), acrylic on canvas, 66 x 52 inches
“Eco de un susurro” (2023), acrylic on canvas, 64 x 50 inches
Detail of “Eco de un susurro” (2023), acrylic on canvas, 64 x 50 inches
“Womb Fantasy” (2022), acrylic and flashe on canvas, 64 x 50 inches
Detail of “Womb Fantasy” (2022), acrylic and flashe on canvas, 64 x 50 inches
“La Conserva” (2022), acrylic on canvas, 60 x 48 inches
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