CARMEN ARGOTE

Cut Series - C2 (Me at Market)
Cochineal and Lemon on paper
48.75” x 48”
2020

Carmen Argote’s practice is driven by her sensitivity to the natural and built environment from which she draws inspiration for her experimental works on paper. This artwork is a portion of a large-scale project commissioned by the Visual Art Center at the University of Texas, Austin.

At first, the artwork reads as an abstract painting of ink and varnish. However, the surface is actually made of lemon juice and cochineal dye (a natural compound derived from insects) poured through linen filters onto archival paper. Gravity and time determine the intermingling of color and the formation of shapes, in an exercise allowing physics and chance to form the image. Argote’s approach encourages us to be present to our place, reverent to the organic, and open to physical possibility, as a gateway to creativity and beauty.