Internationally Recognized Artist Ignacio Gana Brings His Colorful Style to New London

New London has been a mecca for artist’s taking advantage of the abundance of gallery and studio spaces in the area for years. There are also opportunities for artist’s to take up residence in new London such as at the artist co-op above the galleries. Now other galleries such as on 84 Bank Street have embraced the concept of residential artists.

When moving to its new location on Bank Street, Expressiones also acquired the apartment space above the gallery giving them the opportunity to house artists from outside of New London.  The very first of these is painter and sculptor Ignacio Gana from Santiago Chile.

“We knew right away that when we started the Artist in residence program that Ignacio would be the first one,” says Guido Garaycochea, curator at Expressiones.

Starting out as an architect, Gana has been painting for ten years and sculpting for two. “Even when working as an architect. "I would always think in terms of paintings and when I got home I would paint,” Gana tells Patch. “It got to the point that I couldn’t focus on my job anymore,” so he put down the architect’s tools and picked up painter’s tools.

His first paintings were in black and white, a stark contrast to his current style of bold and bright colors. It was only after his first children (twins) were born that he decided to make the transition to bright colors. “I felt that having children was a big change in my life so I needed to make a change in my art to signify that,” says Ignacio.

When he had a third child just two years ago he decided that another change was in order, which is why he started to make sculptures out of bronze and wood. Many of his sculptures may look familiar to those who have seen his other works as the sculpted figures are often characters taken directly from his paintings.

Ignacio Gana’s paintings are currently on display at Expressiones in a show entitled “Trabajos Intervenidos” (Intervened Works). His sculptures were too large and heavy to bring on this trip but we can look forward to seeing them next year when he returns for a longer stay. For now banners with photographs of his sculpting work hang in the gallery.

While in New London Ignacio not only had the opportunity to have a solo show at Expressiones but was invited to be one of six artists involved in the New London Piano Project. In this initiative, pianos were given to artists with the instructions to simply make art. For his piece Ignacio painted a vast rolling green landscape on his piano.

“It was very short notice and I had to paint the piano very quickly,” Gana says. “My goal was to recover the past life of the piano”

Music has the ability to take us to different worlds when we hear it and Ignacio’s paintings invite you into a different often magical world when you view them.  Therefore, painting on this musical instrument made a lot of sense for Ignacio. Gana will not be able to be present for the reception for the piano project, to be held later this month but a video interview will be shown during the event.

If you would like to see Ignacio Gana’s work, it will be on display at Expressiones Gallery until August 20. To find out more about this internationally recognized artist please visit his website at ignaciogana.com. For more information on Expressiones visit expressiones.net.