Macarena Salinas is a ceramic artist who lives and works in Chile. She received her Masters Degree from the Catholic University of Chile Art School in 1994. Over the years, she studied under teachers such as José Balmes, Gracia Barrios, and Gonzalo Cienfuegos.
“I participated in Eugenio Dittborn’s workshop for artists who want to analyze their chosen language in art. After this soul searching I approached Huara Huara studio, directed by Ruth Krauskopf, where I am a member for over 8 years now. I also work in my private studio, and I attend Huara Huara to share criticism and activities.
My work in clay sculpture is about the simplicity of forms, texture, nature and ethnic magic. I have had three solo shows and nineteen collective exhibitions in Chile and France, and I am a member of the International Academy of Ceramics.”
Visit Macarena Salinas’ website and Instagram profile.
Featured work
Sacred Circle, 2018-2019
In my work, the materials have strength and speak for itself, the material is the basis of what I want to transmit or propose, ceramics itself as material, it is what is revealed in the work. I propose an abstract iconography with pieces that evoke protection, that receive, and have a centre or an interior. Circular shapes are, in my work, a language of the form; in general, they have neither beginning nor end, they are closed pieces.
There is a mystery in the sense of what happens in the execution, of the gestures that remain in the piece of art, of the moment when it was made, of the accident, the brand, the sign, of the unexpected that happens while you are working with materials.
The circle, perhaps the most recurring figure in my work, adopts, depending on the material or the tool that I use, different appearances, some more expressive and others more contained. This ” circulismo “, without beginning or end, is consistent with my working method: to reiterate without a clear, hidden purpose, a basic and current action, a mantra perhaps, a very concrete (geometric) image and, at the same time, very ambiguous and with multiple connotations.
There is a counterpoint in the interior and exterior of the work, in the smooth and in the textured, where the smooth with a defined shape is contrasted with the textured with an irregular shape, the smooth emerges from the texture transforming itself. The space is tensed by the interaction between the empty and the full of the form. The circle is related to the smooth, and to the concrete image of its shape.
As an artist I try to capture in my pieces the secret of the moment of working, I feel the need that the action of working is revealed in the work and that it becomes part of it. I am interested in the magic that the piece of art acquires as it becomes independent from the artist.
