2014 Comunicado de Prensa

GLORIA HELENA RIVERA BRICEÑO

Fantastical, allegorical, and arrestingly current, the paintings of Gloria Helena Rivera Briceño are the epitome of modern surrealism. Rivera Briceño, by her own admission, is inspired by everything from the purely visual to poetry, and her canvases are just as likely to show a historical figure as a flying herd of horses. Some works are laced with the feeling of her country’s great creators. The work finds harmony in bringing disparate elements together – allusions to places, eras, personalities, motifs from art history. Each painting contains a multitude of narrative threads and unanswered questions. The content of Rivera Briceño’s work, intriguing as it is, does not overshadow her artistic technique. Working in oil, the artist creates amazingly naturalistic textures. A realistic ocean, depicted in gentle blues and greens, lies under a boat that is meticulously rendered – and floats in the air instead of the water. It is this combination of real world subtlety and impossible situations that makes the work so vivid.

Rivera Briceño was born in Lota, Chile and today lives in Santo Domingo. She has exhibited widely in her home country and has also taught painting.