Come by the AFD Gallery on your First Friday Art Walk. As part of the Art District on Santa Fe, the Alliance Française de Denver takes part in First Friday to showcase our rotating guest artists' exhibits. 

The Alliance Française de Denver presents "Unshakable Gaze" by Catalina Vasquez-Kennedy beginning July 5th, 2019 through August 31st, 2019. Join us on your First Friday Art Walk from 6-8pm to view Catalina's paintings.

Artist Statement:

'Unshakable Gaze' -- My work in conservation forces me to look intently into other artists’ works. I have trained my eye to inspect intimately art objects in order to understand their physical qualities, to appreciate their aesthetic value, and to recognize their various levels of meaning as I evaluate any visible changes brought about by time. I derive enormous pleasure from contemplating images that have come alive through the interplay of shapes and colors, and light and shadows, with their nuanced surface qualities, and I truly enjoy rendering my own version of what I observe – be it a striking detail in a work of art, an arresting moment captured in a photograph, or just simple objects or quiet events witnessed in the tangible world.  Beauty surrounds me and moves me to produce representational works of art like these shown in this gallery. 

About the Artist:

Catalina Vasquez-Kennedy grew up in Bogotá, Colombia in the midst of a musical family. In her late teens she had a three-year stint in architecture school before moving on to studying music formally. While an undergraduate student, she had the auspicious opportunity to sing professionally with the Chorus of the National Opera and the National Chamber Choir of Colombia. 

Catalina moved to New York City in the mid-eighties to pursue graduate school in musicology while working privately as a translator. Gradually she felt attracted by the work of restorers, and learned to repair furniture, metal pieces, and ceramic objects.  While studying Restoration at the Fashion Institute of Technology she increasingly focused on things related to the painted surface, and thus began her incursions into studio arts with the idea of eventually becoming a paintings conservator.  At this time the restoration of Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling was at its peak, a long-lost Caravaggio painting had been rediscovered in Dublin, and art conservation was gaining wider visibility all over.

Captivated by this new field, Catalina made a smooth –albeit lengthy– transition into it.  A year of training at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, Poland, was followed by three years of study to earn her Master of Arts degree in Art Conservation from Buffalo State College in Buffalo, NY.

In recent years Catalina has been restoring easel paintings and large-scale murals in museums and historic sites all over the USA ‒ all the while keeping herself busy at the easel.  By default, her work as a conservator entails taking a deep look into each work of art to be able to discern the materials, methods, and creative processes that went into its creation, and more importantly, to understand the artist’s original intent for his/ her creation.  Each work of art teaches her valuable lessons and, in that regard, each artist becomes a master to her.  Like all artists through the ages, Catalina constantly draws inspiration from other people’s achievements and finds her impetus to explore the endless ideas they put forward.

Catalina is a recent transplant to Colorado and is running a private studio in Littleton where she is busy restoring paintings for private clients while creating her own art.