“Delving into the extensive legacy of Latin American artists examining the relationship between writing and drawing, Macarena Rojas Osterling and Lizi Sánchez intricately explore the gestures and bodily expressions underlying mark-making, observing our connection with language beyond mere communication. The artists focus on the movement inherent in the act of writing, questioning its essence and its significance in the human experience.
As Roland Barthes aptly expressed: ‘writing is the hand which bears down and advances or hangs back, always in the same direction’. In their artworks, the viewer discerns the transformative journey of drawing as a form of notation, evolving into landscapes, constellations, and symbols that transcend the meaning provided by text. Immerse yourself in a universe where the boundaries between language and imagery seamlessly blend. These are not puzzles to be solved but rather allegories of human expression - the fine line between the past and present; writing and drawing; movement and communication” – Amalgama.
Image credit: (detail) Lizi Sánchez, 'Parafrase I, II (La historia se repite)', 2021, courtesy Amalgama Art
About the artists
Macarena Rojas Osterling
Macarena Rojas Osterling studied Architecture at the Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas and subsequently transferred to the Communications Department, where she graduated in 2009. In 2012, she undertook the General Studies in Photography Programme at the International Center of Photography in New York and received her Master’s in Fine Arts from the Royal College of Art in London in 2017. Her work has been exhibited in Crisis Galería Lima (2019), Art Lima (2018), Museo AMANO Lima (2018), Camden Arts Centre London (2017), Edinburgh College of Art (2016), Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Lima (2016), ArtBo Bogotá (2016), Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Santiago de Chile (2014), Wu Galería (2014-2015), International Center of Photography New York (2012), and Triskelion Arts New York (2013), amongst other public and privately held collections.
Lizi Sánchez
Lizi Sánchez is interested in the communicative power of language. Fracture of various communication systems and codes is a preoccupation in her work. Sánchez is interested in how different processes, contexts, and intentions transform the use and meaning of language. She frequently uses material supports from the everyday environment that attract her both for their connotations and their qualities; thus brightness, malleability, translucency, or lightness become an integral part of her work. Sánchez has exhibited in various public and private institutions such as Whitechapel Gallery, Studio Voltaire, Drawing Room London, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, Oriel Davies Gallery, Newtown, ICPNA, Lima, among others. Her work appears in the book, ‘Remains-Tomorrow: Themes in Contemporary Latin American Abstraction’, edited by Cecilia Fajardo Hill (Hatje Cantz, Dec 2022).
