Josefina Concha E.

Artist Josefina Concha (Santiago de Chile, 1985) is master of textile art, who brings forward centuries of Latin American heritage through a communion with craft and nature. By using elements such as skin, hair, plants and animals as initial inspiration, she has found in the thousands of layers of woven thread the possibility of painting and drawing without relying on those mediums, and instead echoing a tradition that has been passed on through generations of women. Nature is her main source of inspiration, its resemblance to the human body, the exuberance of color and form, the vulnerability of live matter, the visual and symbolic richness of the elements, these are the subjects which inspire her body of work.

“Josefina Concha E.’s series Sempiterno [Everlasting] unfolds from the interplay of
rational systematization and unforeseen outcomes. The artist works with a cotton canvas, sewing thick zigzags, wide stitches laid one line beside the next, forcing the surface into creases and folds through accumulation. The resulting pieces, hypnotic and heavy textiles with circular shapes, are not displayed flat against the wall but emerge as irregular, sculptural forms that push beyond the gallery’s corners and edges, entering the viewer’s space. The concentric lines of these works reminds both the rings exposed in a cut tree trunk and the layered formations of crystallized rocks, filling the room with a quiet sense of nature’s inner life and layered intimacy. Echoing geological and topographical patterns, Concha’s work uses repetition as structure and rhythm—seen in recurring cross-stitches and circular lines that subtly guide the viewer’s eye and body through their movement.”

Laura Hakel