ARTIST STATEMENT
My work attempts to invent a personal mythology through the reclamation of objects and actions from my past, which I transform through infusing them with new meaning. My childhood was dually devoted to sustenance farming and the strict observance of the Catholic faith. Essentially both operated as religion, each with its own set of revered icons, prescribed behaviors, and ritual practices.
Avoiding and embracing nihilism happens concurrently with my emergence from what I begin to envision as a fanatical and oppressive framework. Drawing upon my background in biology and chemistry, I carefully examine the artifacts and processes, a material exploration that generates unexpected relationships and novel encounters. Resolved sculptural objects reference the reduced, elemental quality of materials, most often found objects held in purposeful suspension by a traditional sculptural material such as plaster, concrete, wood, or wax. Both material and meaning are thus transformed and enfolded into a growing repertoire.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Lillian Heredia’s work grapples with past experiences with religion, domesticity, and motherhood through the lens of her background in biology. She lives and works in Chicago, IL where her work has been shown at The Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art, SAIC Galleries, Woman Made Gallery, and Studio 659. She received a Bachelor of Science in Biology in 2011 and is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago with an emphasis in sculpture. She is a recipient of the Presidential Merit Scholarship and has been a finalist in the Pinnacle Awards and the Documentary Family Awards. Lillian is currently preparing for her first two-person exhibition to take place at SITE Galleries in November 2023 and is showing with Probe Chicago, a roving artist-run gallery space she co-founded in May 2023.
© Lillian Heredia