You Are Listening

Iza Campos, Violinist on Pink and Yellow, 2015, acrylic on canvas, 12” x 12”


Project Space
You Are Listening
Iza Campos
March 24, 2017 – April 22, 2017

Special Opening Performance: Violinist Gloria Yip will be performing at the opening on Friday, March 24. Yip will begin her 20 minute performance at approx. 7:30pm. The full title of the violin piece she will be playing is:
Violin Sonata No. 2 in A minor, BWV 1003
1. Grave
2. Fuga
3. Andante
4. Allegro
Iza Campos’ work is symbolic, placed between representational and abstract, looking to construct meaning on the relativity of colours’ interactions and simplified forms. Symbolism resonates in her practice as unveiled through her fascination with violinists. Since 2015, Campos has been exploring “female violinists” as a theme. The female violinist stands for culture, for connecting body and mind; meanwhile the viewer can relate the sense of looking to the sense of listening to colours. Our senses: looking, listening, touching… unify body and mind, giving a feeling of wholeness, of present presence. This experience defines an aesthetic of contemplation close to the unifying experience of meditation or truth as perception. This feeling of transcendence is what viewers are looking for while visiting museums and galleries, attending concerts and having a relationship with certain types of music. The perception is the bridge, the means to transcend the “split.”

Above all, Campos’ work with female violinists is a way to explore a unique expression of our humanity, images that appeal to the sense of listening as much to looking. It is by decoding and encoding the same image again and again, translating it in different media, that Campos embraces the chance to create a plurality of meaning and signification that can affect the viewer and release an individual sensorial response. A theme or composition as a constant element makes repetition the means of exploration. The “violinist” is the reference to a wide range of artworks created in a diverse range of media, as painting, printmaking (etching, linocuts and monotypes), collages and installations. Furthermore, repetition offers the opportunity to deeper my relationship with the chosen composition, inviting to ceaseless experimentations.

Iza Campos began her art education as an apprentice painter in São Paulo, Brazil at the age of eight. Her practice includes international exhibitions and residencies in Czech Republic, USA, Brazil, and most recently, Canary Islands, Spain. Today, Iza concentrates her practice working in her studio, located in Kensington Market, Toronto and as a member of Open Studio, an artist-run centre dedicated to printmaking.