MARCH 2 – APRIL 20, 2022

Opening Reception with the Artist
Wednesday, March 2, 6 – 8 PM

SOCO Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of Sliver of Salt, a solo exhibition by Monica Kim Garza. The gallery will host a public opening reception with the artist on March 2, 2022 from 6 - 8PM. This will be Garza’s first exhibition with the gallery. 

Sliver of Salt includes new mixed media paintings and works on paper that will export the viewer to the beaches of Europe throughout the main gallery and new SOCO Annex.  The title of the exhibition refers to the poem The Sea, by one of Garza’s favorite poets, Pablo Neruda. 

“I need the sea because it teaches me. 
I don’t know if I learn music or awareness, 
if it’s a single wave or its vast existence, 
or only its harsh  voice or its shining 
suggestion of fishes  and chips. 
The fact is that until I fall asleep,
in some magnetic way I move in
the university of the waves.” 

The artist’s familiar tan, robust women gather, lounge and frolic on the pebbly beach in brightly colored bathing suits, with bags and umbrellas. An ocean breeze chills the skin but they are unconcerned with both the weather and the viewer.  Garza is known for painting nude women who subvert the male gaze and enjoy themselves. The paintings’ titles,  “Looking for a Spot”, “6Pack of Beer'' and “Dormir by the Mer”, reference the casual beach going activities and play with the beach locale.

For the artist, the landscape is the most important inspiration, rousing her to depict scenes of her own life, including memories with friends and candid moments at dinner and lunch. On a recent trip to Europe, visits to museums and favorite paintings by Braque, Cezanne, Monet, Picasso, Serat,  along with new sites and landscapes, heavily influenced this new body of work.  Picasso’s evolution as an artist, in particular, has always interested Garza. Here we can see the artists’ brushwork and figures being pushed further into abstraction.  Garza’s process of creating her paintings  is a walk through nostalgia and discovery.  You can almost feel the salt on your skin from the Sea and hear the waves crashing. 

The color palette is cooler blues and greens, which contrast against the warm, voluptuous figures. The artists’ impressionist and expressionistic brushwork and thick layering of oil and acrylic are punctuated by mixed media - yarn, wool, glitter, cardboard - affixed to the surface like accessories.   The layers of paint underneath the top surface draw you in akin to an archeological dig. 

Monica Kim Garza (New Mexico, B. 1988)

Monica Kim Garza (b. 1988, New Mexico) has gained widespread recognition through her vibrant portrayals of women of color. The Mexican-Korean artist rejects the male gaze, celebrating confident and uninhibited women through her figurative works. Visually her paintings are lively and instantly recognizable, presenting brown-skinned, curvy women engaging in leisurely activities. Garza experiments with form and contour, reimagining the classical female nude in oil, acrylic and collage on canvas. The artist received her BFA in 2010 from the California College of Arts. She has exhibited at V1 Gallery in Copenhagen, New Image Art in Los Angeles,  Ruttowski 68 in Cologne, Galerie Julien Cadet in Paris, and The Hole in New York City. The artist works and lives in Atlanta, GA.