The Timken Museum of Art has disclosed preparations for Tatiana Ortiz-Rubio, renowned for her grandiose mural illustrations, to assume the role of artist-in-residence for the 2024 summer season. Ortiz-Rubio is poised to craft an impressive mural, In Blue Time, taking its cue from the Timken’s 1557 painting, Parable of the Sower, by Pieter Brueghel the Elder. Her installation will sprawl across an extensive wall surface within the Museum’s Dutch/Flemish Gallery and will be open for public viewing from early June through September 29. During her occupancy from June 5-26, patrons of the Timken have the opportunity to witness Ortiz-Rubio in the process of giving life to In Blue Time.
Augmenting In Blue Time, Ortiz-Rubio is forging another audacious work for the Timken’s rotating Exhibition Gallery. This element encompasses a large-scale drawing emerging from a collaboration with composer Stefan Cwik, which delves into the notion of time, echoing the larger thematic essence of In Blue Time. Additionally, throughout her residency, Ortiz-Rubio will investigate varied terrains, employing the technique of atmospheric perspective to convey spatial depth. Her diminutive, preliminary mixed-media studies on vellum will display the progression of her artistic path.
A native of Mexico, Ortiz-Rubio describes her imminent summer sojourn as a quest into the realms of memory. The conceptual bedrock of In Blue Time weaves through neural trails of memory and overlooking, while also capturing the lyrical and contemplative aspects of reminiscence. Among her inspirations is Rebecca Solnit’s A Field Guide to Getting Lost, which portrays memory as “the blue of distance,” a nod to the blue hues characteristic of conventional painting’s atmospheric perspective.
Ortiz-Rubio has declared, “The Parable of the Sower by Brueghel has consistently enchanted me – notably its command of depth and the harmonious blending of color and texture at the vanishing point. These features ignited the intellectual motif behind my upcoming residency. Concurrently with the principal piece that resonates with Brueghel’s masterpiece, I am devising other smaller works that will be in conversation with various artifacts in the collection.”
Murals have deeply impacted Ortiz-Rubio from her early years surrounded by them in Mexico City. While murals have been a persistent influence in her artistic and cultural landscape, Ortiz-Rubio did not undertake her maiden mural project until 2018 at the Bread & Salt Gallery in San Diego. Her artworks are displayed in prestigious locales such as Centro Cultural Tijuana (CECUT), Athenaeum Music and Arts Library, Quint Gallery all located in San Diego, and the Orchid Building in San Diego’s Normal Heights neighborhood. Presently, her mural commissioned by the California Health Department at the Bread & Salt Gallery endures on display.
Ortiz-Rubio elucidated, “At the Timken, my aim is to extend upon the atmospheric strata evident in the Parable of the Sower’s horizon, as a symbol for the act of recalling. Comparable to a scenery observed through a misty atmospheric curtain, vague and indistinct, this serves as an allegory for the mechanics of memory – the further the memory, the more obscure it appears, veiled in layers of time shift, personal interpretation, and oblivion.”
Summer Exhibition: In Blue Time
Artist-in-Residence: Tatiana Ortiz-Rubio
Inspired by Pieter Brueghel’s Parable of the Sower, 1557 – A Staple of the Timken’s Permanent Collection
Residency Span: June 5 – 28, 2024 – Exhibit Duration: July 17-September 29, 2024
Timken Museum of Art – Balboa Park
1500 El Prado, San Diego, CA 92101
619.239.5548 – www.timkenmuseum.org
Visual References: TatianaOrtiz-Rubio.com