Matthias Garcia’s work is associated with "poetic emotion," similar to the dark poetry of the Surrealists. His paintings draw inspiration from fairy tales and Hans Christian Andersen, featuring delicate human figures and natural landscapes in a style he describes as "against-reality-ish" and "mermaid-ish." Childhood and dreams are the two main themes that Garcia's work centers around, with a sense of ambiguity where dreams can easily turn into nightmares and childhood is viewed as an uncertain state of innocence. Unlike typical characters found in Walt Disney cartoons, Garcia's "childish" figures, such as ondine and mermaid he depicts have unique features, such as stumps for arms or a forked tail with polished toenails on each end. Although Garcia's work is comprehensible, as it stems from his imagination and unconscious mind. The purpose of his work is to evoke sensory responses from the viewer, allowing them to project their own fears and fantasies onto it.
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Founded in 2010 by Guillaume Sultana, Sultana collaborates with emerging international artists. The gallery space operates as a site for experimentation and expression, often bringing together well-established and lesser known artists through a playful, yet politically-engaged curatorial program that highlights practices concerned with questions of identity and their social ramifications. By giving space to curators and writers, in addition to artists, the gallery is committed to rethinking the traditional modes of exhibition-making and collaboration within the art world. In 2021, Sultana opened Sultana Summer Set Arles to convene artists, collectors, curators, and friends close to the gallery in a domestic and intimate space in the heart of the city. This space was conceived as a residency and site of exchange, to host projects angled toward creative freedom, reflection, and flânerie that eschews a regular programming schedule, and is organized instead according to the whims and desires of our community. These two spaces exemplify the spirit of Sultana: the desire to provide artists with an independent platform for expression via site-specific projects and curatorial propositions. ...
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