Reviews
Dictionary of XX Century Plastic Arts in Ecuador
Hernán Rodríguez Castelo, 2006
With a very free watercolor and acrylic mixed technique, she achieves suggestive images where the theme, which is frequently floral, is only the starting point both for the artist and the observer in terms of visual harmony, rich in accurate effects.
The greater the boldness of the formal and chromatic play, the more we observe a solid sense of composition.
In a last span, she gives solidity to forms in almost flat backgrounds, both in rhythmic and almost gesturing strokes as well as in straight and strong compositions that have a vague geometrical air.
In her last exhibit (2001), she worked again with chromatic freedom and compositional brio, in a sort of compilation of former modes, as a preamble for new searches.
I thought of naming this very brief text, every day fragments. Or, maybe, unexpected spaces of feeling that identify the artistic moment Marife Casares is going through, or that in some way, defines the exhibition, which, without becoming an artistic definition, would be suitable to name it as a transition painting period. A transition that turns into a passionate conversion towards an alternative expression escaping the impasse and uncertainty that modern aesthetics suffer.
The confrontation is addressed to her inner self, not as an individual , but rather as an existence that emerges and nurtures from various sources from her daily living; from the complexity of what is near, the nostalgia of what is far, and the expectation of what is to come. And, among these, each pictorial image creates a scenery where the experience of the illusory as something true and tangible is at work.
The artist invites us to meditate by a symbolic exercise making us verify her unexpected spaces of feeling which vertiginously elapse as an inevitable requirement to prove her own way of existence. These visual realizations make us glimpse furtive apparitions that reveal, in a casual way, the inner workings of each form and color.
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In Marife, casualty is non existent.
Her inclination for art is not determined by a passing fad or by intellectual snobbery, but rather by a rigorous training (United States, Italy, Chile, Quito) that leads her to understand that the painter responds to a process where dedication and discipline are a must.
In the present world, (and even more so in the world of art), there is no longer place for improvisations or the improvised.
In her work, Marife accomplishes to daringly break the defined (and clean) line with bold strokes, almost spots, in order to form an unusual and suggestive compositional space, achieving, in addition, the difficult transparence of watercolors.
Nature is not only an attractive subject which is nowadays fashionable. In this case, nature is an aesthetic commitment; flowers, for instance, enable Marife to express herself aesthetically; they constitute an excuse to use colors and forms with the aim of providing visual enjoyment, an enjoyment to which the observers (the final addressees) also join with pleasure. And it is not as if everything is finished. On the contrary, the search has only started (and hopefully will not end) , since in this solo exhibit all what is uncompleted constitutes rather another reason for satisfaction, as we know that, fortunately, with Marife, everything is about to happen.
Marife Casares, a mix of sensibility and boldness, an incipient ambitious personality, possesing a sense of discipline and a serene vision of what she is about to achieve and will bring her intense happiness, unique aesthetic joys, but also suffering, the unfailing torment that permeate the soul of those who travel forbidden routes.
Her watercolors are all connected by a unique language, saturated of an only expressive voice that speaks of a lucid way of structuring her compositions, among variants and rhythms, among themes and contents, as somebody who selectively extracts the precious raw material from a sole and inexhaustible quarry to help her build her works.