Artebella On The Radio: March 25

The 2021 Arts-Louisville Theatre Awards will live stream this March 25, and as a part of this year's special edition, Angelica Santiago & Crystian Wiltshire talk about being BIPOC actors working out of Louisville. Join us this Thursday on WXOX 97.1 FM, or stream on Artxfm.com at 10 am.

Angelica Santiago, a multicultural chica born and raised Jersey native, is an actress telling the stories that need to be told. Having graduated from Montclair State University with her BFA in acting she uses the skills towards her craft to connect with people around the world and dive into her work in an even more personal way. Angelica's passion for acting comes from her desire to inspire audiences from all over and allow them to be affected by the stories of people that must share what they have to say. She was apart of the 2018-19 Actors Theatre of Louisville Acting Apprenticeship and has continued to work off and on in Louisville for Actors Theatre, Kentucky Shakespeare, and the Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati.

Crystian Wiltshire is originally from Brooklyn, New York but is an alumnus of the African American Theatre Program at the University of Louisville Department of Theatre Arts. He has worked with Stage One Family Theatre, Kentucky Shakespeare, Cincinnati Shakespeare Company, and the Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati.

Vignette: Andrea Alonso

Geometry has always been important in Andrea Alonso’s painting. She uses it to construct a nearly abstract cityscape of buildings crowded in upon each other. It is the urban atmosphere of Mexico, Spain, and other Spanish language societies, but it is not unlike many American cities where low-income residences have been grouped in claustrophobic proximity.

"Night Smoker" by Andrea Alonso, Oil on canvas, 31x39in, 2018, $3000

“My main focus is the visual representation of low-income cities and towns,” explains Alonso, “since in those places urban solutions are more spontaneous and less rigid. I try to recreate the feeling a spot gave me. I use vibrant and striking colors to emphasize the emotion and the space within these geometric arrangements.”

Whereas in the past those compositions have been dense arrangements of line, shape and color, of late, Alonso has pulled back her point-of-view to view smaller communities situated away from the over-populated cities. The buildings are still close, but the shift on the emotion of the color changes our perception. The bold, saturated yellow of “Sunny Town” captures the hot climate but it also imbues the image with hope and perhaps even joy, and the relationship of the buildings suggests a different, more old-fashioned sense of community: a small town in which we imagine life unfolds at an unhurried pace that might be the envy of the city dwellers.

Yellow is also the dominant color in “Green Roofs”, an example of the tighter urban images, but this group of paintings seem to capture this shift in a particularly logical, linear progression, from the deep blues of “Nightsmoker”, repeated as the composition begins to open up in “Town at Night”, then the introduction of warmer hues in “Green Roofs”. The green of those roofs then flows into the landscape of “Village in the Fields”, the former resting above the heads of the residents while the former surrounds the community with agricultural fertility.

"Sunny Town" by Andrea Alonso, Oil on wood 12x12in, 2018, $300

It is a simple, almost naive contrast of the different environments but a vivid expression of Alonso’s stated mission of blending the sensibility of abstract expressionism with an understanding of social problems.

In December 2018, Alonso will have a show at Studio Oh in Chicago. Currently Alonso is one of the many Louisville artists featured in the Alley Gallery public art program sponsored by the Louisville Downtown Partnership.

Alonso was one of the five finalists in 2017 ArtPrize Pitch Night in Louisville, and she has paintings featured in Art Yellow Book #2, by CICA Museum, South Korea.

Hometown: Monterrey, Mexico
Education: Architecture degree University of Monterrey, Mexico; MBA in Administration, Rioja University, Madrid, Spain.
Website: art-ark.com
Instagram: art_ark_

Scroll down for more images

"Green Roofs" by Andrea Alonso, Oil on canvas, 31x39in, 2018, $3000

"Village in Green Field" by Andrea Alonso, Oil on wood, 12x14in, 2018, $300

"Town at Night" by Andrea Alonso, Oil on wood, 12x12in, 2018, $300

Written by Keith Waits. Entire contents copyright © 2018 Louisville Visual Art. All rights reserved

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