My paintings are mostly abstract, with figurative and natural forms, psychological and situational references.These abstract situations can be narrowly personal or broadly political, sometimes ecological. I broke out of the rectangle in the early 80's, creating large unruly, shaped canvases, harking back to times before stretched canvases, i.e. cave painting, medieval art and architecture, paintings that were the walls themselves. I wanted the painting to be part of the viewer's space instead of a window opening onto another space. I was driven to express the tension created by forms pushing against the sides of the rectangle, until they finally broke through.

I communicate in the language of form and color, formally as well as symbolically. Duality and the balancing of exremes excite me. Speed is counterpointed with stillness, areas of calm with agitation, warmth next to cool. My influences are far and wide ranging, from prehistoric artifacts to chaos theory, from the masters of early modernism to the masters of graffiti. I have been fortunate to have had wonderful mentors and teachers, the first being my father. I continue to explore the pictorial possibilities of events, or shapes in movement and the tension they create in relation to one another in a non-rectangular format.

Nilsa Garcia-Rey