Kathryn Garcia

671 Santa Clara Ave #3

Venice, Ca 90291
323.680.1247
kathryn.garcia@gmail.com
kathryngarcia.xyz

My work is about connection. My practice unfolds across various mediums, and

frequently it begins with drawings that are transformed into three-dimensional
sculptures. As part of the work, the sculptures are installed and interacted with at
various sites around the world. I intend for these works to function as relational
sculptures designed for human interaction within a social context. The sculptures are
large and immersive and meant to be entered. Central to the work is an invitation to
visitors to spend time inside of the sculptures and take a moment of refuge from daily
life to reflect, meditate or just chill. I also organize events for the public that further
engage sustained participation within the works. The empty space of a pyramid serves
as the site for sound healings, meditations, performances and offers an opportunity to
explore ideas such as experience, emptiness, and sanctuary.

My intention is to show that art can be used to create a positive collective experience
and consequently a sense of connectedness.

For my project with Beta-Local I would like to install a portable, large-scale, immersive
sculpture at various sites around the island and lead meditations within it. It will act as a
roving refuge - a ​Refugio Libre​, where I will guide visitors into silent meditation, offering
various techniques that encourage participation with an immersive sculpture and
landscape. We will explore objecthood, environment, and inner experience, and
examine how the three are connected. I would like to illustrate how art can engage with
different levels of experience simultaneously, experience that reaches into realms
beyond the visual and the physical -- the Inner Experience! The cosmic experience! And
Connection!

Some of the questions I will discuss in these workshops are: In what myriad ways can
an art-object be experienced? How can an object become an event? What is a
collective experience? What constitutes a spiritual experience? Can art catalyze human
connection? Can art be used as a tool for the advancement of human consciousness?
Can art function as a space of refuge?
((((I believe it can.))))

Art has the ability to provide a viewer with mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual
recovery, art can be used to highlight our connections with each other and our planet. In
the current climate of widespread political and cultural anxiety (and in the case of Puerto
Rico, economic uncertainty) recovery, self-care, and a sense of interconnectedness not
only with a community but with all of life, becomes essential not only to our survival, and
to the survival of the planet, but to the maintenance of our sanity as well.

I am confident that Puerto Rico is the perfect location to launch ​Refugio Libre, ​with it’s
breathtaking environment and proximity to the ocean, which is in itself a restorative
place. I am confident that the participants will take a positive experience home with
them, and will be inspired to think a little bit differently about the purpose of an artistic
practice.

I believe that we can all come together to create a more peaceful world and it starts
with(in) us.

I sincerely thank you for your time and I look forward to collaborating with you.

All my best,

Kathryn Garcia

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 Kathryn Garcia
Hipogea Nº33​, 2018
Polished stainless steel
10 x 8 x 10 feet
 Kathryn Garcia
Hipogea Nº33, ​2018
Polished stainless steel
10 x 8 x 10 feet
(Guided meditation documentation)
 Kathryn Garcia
Hipogea Nº33, ​2018
Polished stainless steel
10 x 8 x 10 feet
(Guided meditation documentation)
 Kathryn Garcia
Hipogea Nº33, ​2018
Polished stainless steel
10 x 8 x 10 feet
(site specific installation, Joshua Tree, California)
 Kathryn Garcia
​ 018
A Tanit, 2
Installation images
Various Small Fires, Los Angeles, CA
 Kathryn Garcia
Community Healing – Gong Sound Bath, 2018
Various Small Fires, Los Angeles, CA
Kathryn Garcia ​(b. 1978, Los Angeles, CA) lives and works between Los Angeles and
Ibiza. Inspired by travels to ancient and sacred sites, Garcia works in a variety of media,
including site-specific performance, sculpture, and drawing. Provocative and oftentimes
interactive, her works investigate ideas such as mindfulness, participation,
interconnectedness and the experiential in art. Early on in her career, Garcia worked on
international projects with Javier Peres, Emi Fontana and Rirkrit Tiravanija, such as
Daddy the Magazine ​(2007) ​Women in the City (​ 2008), ​Palm Pavilion​ (2008) and ​Asile
Flottant (​ 2010). Garcia’s work has been exhibited in the US and abroad, including
Orange County Museum of Art, Santa Ana; LAXART, Various Small Fires, 356 Mission,
Blum and Poe, and Harmony Murphy Gallery, all in Los Angeles; Pace Gallery, Invisible
Exports, GBE, Participant, PS1-MOMA, all in NY; Ballroom Marfa, Texas; The Power
Station, Dallas; Nina Johnson, Miami; Southard Reid, London; Embajada, Puerto Rico;
Arredondo/Arozarena, Mexico City; and DESTE foundation, Greece.