LELA WELCH & ANA SOFÍA CAMARGA
Lela Welch graduated from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo’s Art and Design department with a BFA in 2018. She has since participated in the INVERSE Summer Residencies in 2018 and 2019, and the INVERSE Spring Residency in 2020 along with durational performances in Los Angeles, Los Osos and San Luis Obispo. She uses performance and object making to create a bridge between artist, action and object as well as uses personal histories of addiction and generational semiotics to explore visibility, relevance and power.
“I grew up in a family system of unmanaged depression. For me, this manifested into a young adulthood of pain and self abuse. As an artist living on the other side of that mentality, I make work that explores the depth of that trauma while connec:ng those experiences to those who still suffer, stuck in the same cycles that I once was trapped within. I use sculpture, performance, and my body to explore these topics. I use these methods because they speak to both the permanence and impermanence of experience leaving something tangible with objects as well as intangible with work that revolves around gesture and me.”
Ana Sofía Camarga is a conceptual artist based in the former Canal Zone town of Gamboa. Camarga is deeply connected to her identity as a working class woman of color. She uses this identity as the main axis of her artistic research. She continuously explores her rejection and obsession with domesticity. Most recently, she has been invested in the concept of techno-intimacy and its possibilities to blur the limit of private and public, inside and outside. The product of Camarga’s research are metaphoric processes that through decontextualization point out the absurdity of the subject matter: sculpting a perfect flower vase to bit into, modeling flowery metal gags from her partner’s bite, posting online private candid self-portrait nudes, leaving beautifully crafted paper to rot in the rainforest.
Camarga has exhibited in the United States, in various collective shows in Northwest Arkansas. Among which, stands out her participation at the INVERSE Performance Art Festival. In her home country, she has exhibited at Arte Nómada Exhibition (2018), and Subasta MAC (2019, 2020), the annual auction of the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Panamá. “He Sentado Cabeza,” her latest exhibition and installation, was a solo show presenting her bachelor thesis and latest work at the apartment she rented along with two others. Most recently, she was the recipient of the Creativa Coffee District Central American Art Art Residency program, which she took part in from her rent-secured apartment in Gamboa. In her free time, she writes poetry and dances to electro-cumbia.
