Cara Guri
“I am turning my attention to the photorealistic work of Cara Guri. Her work opens a new world, all be it a challenging one.”
— Sandra Botnen, curator
“My goal is to produce new meanings in viewership and new type of connection”
The artist for Day 17 is Cara Guri. I am excited to introduce her work because it turns the conversation toward an aspect of art I have yet to explore – portraiture. The past five days have looked at the popularity of contemporary abstraction, but now I am turning my attention to the photorealistic work of Cara Guri. Her work opens a new world, be it a challenging one. The graphic realism of her painting is confronting, and it is that same confrontation that helps explain the ease and popularity of abstract contemporary works. Guri’s paintings are beautifully executed, but deceptively challenging. Demure compositions are gentle in their invitation of the viewer’s gaze, then trapping it in a mind game that escorts one out to the psychological edges of ambiguity.
Guri’s sensibilities are modern and minimalist but her work remains rooted in a well-studied and practiced approach to painting photo-realistic images. After graduating from Emily Carr School of Art and Design, she went on to Columbia University in New York for more advanced studies. Today she is an artist who has passed through the eye of the needle, mastering the techniques of formal portraiture while still having fun doing it. Her command of the art form allows her to play and take pleasure in turning the conventions of “viewership” on its head.
What follows is a strange question, but I have to ask. I ask about her smooth hair, sensing within the artist such a deep dedication to clean lines and minimalism that the aesthetic extends to her own appearance and grooming. “No, no. I love to paint what some might see as imperfections,” she says. “I love to paint veins, moles and messy hair. I paint a lot of hair but always include stray strands. Including imperfections on the skin allows me to paint my subjects like a landscape. Those nuances are exciting to me.”
I tell Guri that I am profiling 30 artists in 30 days and she is responsible for pivoting the conversation from abstraction to realism. She responds, “I think of my work as partly abstract though… not the result, but the process.” She continues to describe her paintings as multi-layered, “like rock sediment”, each layer involving some form of abstraction until the layers come together to achieve a degree of realism. Many of her works are self-portraits requiring angled mirrors to get a closer look at body parts she would otherwise not be able to see. The process involves a kind of severing of self, to examine her body as a separate subject. There is even an element of objectification of her own body, she adds, observing her own parts as if they are unknown and unattainable. Ultimately, the numerous cycles of observation, and reproducing the image of her own body relent, and she comes to recognize a greater and more intimate self-awareness than before.
The end results, are paintings that revolve around paradox while sweeping the viewer into their fold. I draw a comparison to the work of graphic artist M.C. Escher depicting images, for example, of a snake swallowing its tail. It’s a visual puzzle you can’t put down. As Guri speaks to me from her studio in Vancouver, behind her hangs a self-portrait, and I can’t take my eyes off it. Her hands are raised to imitate the shutter of a camera framing her ear, while blocking out nearly her whole profile. The hands, a trope of classical portraiture, are gentle, and unassuming. A feminine and inviting character, like the classic nude reclining in a settee, inviting the male gaze. But rather than direct the gaze in a sexually suggestive direction, our eyes are directed into the blackhole of her ear. Suddenly those hands - palms pressed forward - appear more assertive gesturing to the viewer to back-off, or alternatively suggesting intimacy where it is she who has the upper hand, taking you - the viewer - in, as if to hear your very thoughts. Suddenly, it is the virtues of the painter, acting as stage director, that controls the situation.
“Digesting the history of portraiture in Western art, in the context of today, has involved me looking at power portraits of the aristocracy, and traditional female nudes catering to the male gaze. In both cases the viewer is given everything, and as a painter I felt alienated by both approaches. I was interested in an alternate narrative whereby subjects retain a piece of themselves. They are intimate but you don’t have full access. My goal is to produce new meanings in viewership and new type of connection,” says Guri.
Day 17, I am ready to rise to the challenge Cara Guri’s paintings present. The fundamental values of her work both disrupt and conform to a historically elevated art form. The sophistication of her compositions suggest mastery and invoke a dynamic world of interpretation. I appreciate the nuance of this work, how meaning can shift like light and shadows, averaging out and ultimately appreciating over time.