Anica Shpilberg: Fragments, Memories and Realities

By Raisa Clavijo

Anica Shpilberg, Tango Class before the Madness, 2011, 40” x 30.”

The oeuvre of Anica Shpilberg functions as a gateway to a palpable and diverse reality that could just as easily be located in Shanghai, as in New York, Miami, Lima, Bilbao or London. The world in which she lives changes very rapidly, as life has given her the opportunity to travel constantly to a variety of countries where people have disproportionate access to opportunities. “I want to bring an awareness of the social disparity in which we live today, so I go from the Indians in the mountains of Peru to the sophistication that a resort in Italy might bring or to the different garbage collectors I have photographed over the years,” she says. “This is the way that I tell my story. I have always said that it is easier for me to use my art than to use words.”

Her main sources of inspiration are those things she witnesses in her many travels. These awaken in her the need to create, to weave a narrative starting with the fragments that she manages to capture from these experiences. While her earlier work captured fragments of her daily life and that of her family, what moves her now is the need to record the historical context in which contemporary man exists in order to perpetuate it so that it does not become diluted in memory.

Anica started creating art at a very early age in her native Peru after her mother introduced her to handicrafts such as embroidery, knitting and sewing. However, when Anica started spending hours drawing in her notebooks her mother enrolled her in painting classes. In 1970, she emigrated to the United States and studied design at LaSalle University in Chicago. Anica later moved to New York, where she studied photography, printmaking, mixed media and steel sculpture at the Pratt Institute, before going on to complete her studies at the Silvermine College of Art in Connecticut.

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Museum Ghosts, 2011, 30” x 40.” All photos are courtesy of the artist.

Her artwork reflect the influence of some of the key figures of the 20th century, including Robert Rauschenberg, Frank Stella and Clyfford Still. But her work is not simple to interpret, nor should it be taken literally. Instead, it must be discovered step by step by learning to read the myriad symbols in her paintings that she hides under layers of pigments and materials that metaphorically function like the strata of remembrances, which must be removed in order to uncover the intimate universe of each human being.

Her recent series combines painting and photography. As if she were weaving a large cloth of memories, she delves into her extensive archive and selects images from her trips, which she prints on canvas, metal or chrome paper and treats them with different materials, altering the original scene and imprinting them with an aura of timelessness. Anica attempts to capture the heartbeat of each event she records by stressing and reassessing its singularity. In this way she attempts to hold back time and perpetuate it for posterity.

Old Shanghai, 2011, 20” x 20.”

Works such as Old Shanghai contain glimpses of that city 25 years ago when it still maintained a certain provincial flavor and had not yet succumbed to the vortex of technology and consumerism. Other works address social themes, as in the case of Tango Classes Before the Madness, which is an implicit commentary against violence and terrorism. The piece displays a tango lesson in the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao plaza, a scene that could suddenly be interrupted by a terrorist act. Although ETA, the Basque separatist organization, announced an end to armed activities in October, a climate of insecurity still exists in Spain after decades of terrorism. Other pieces allude to the “footprints” that we human beings leave behind in our wake in the places and on the objects we influence. An example of this is Museum Ghost, according to Shpilberg. “Museum Ghost is about the life of the many artists that form the collections of the many museums around the world and what it would be like if they could all share their experiences with us, what we could learn that is not in the book and how they would get along among themselves,” she says.

Anica’s work is in private collections in Connecticut, Georgia, New York, Massachusetts, Florida, Peru, Chile, Venezuela, Switzerland and Israel. Her works have been exhibited in more than 70 international exhibitions in cities such as Miami, New York, Atlanta, New Haven, Dallas and Shanghai, among others. Of note are the World Tour of Contemporary Art London 2011 and Shanghai Art Fair 2011.

Anica Shpilberg is represented in Miami by Elite Fine Art Galleries. 46 NW 36th Street Miami, FL, 33127. Art collectors are welcomed to visit her studio at the Bakehouse Art Complex. 561 NW 32nd Street. Miami, FL 33127. www.anicaonline.com / anica@anicaonline.com

During Miami Art Week, she will be part of the show “International Art Exhibition,” curated by Nina Torres at 1800 Gallery. North Bayshore Drive, Miami, 33132. (November 28, 2011 - January 28, 2012.)

Raisa Clavijo is an art critic and curator based in Miami. She is de editor of ARTPULSE and ARTDISTRICTS magazines.