Symona Colina

Exu­ber­antly col­ored in bright blues, oranges, pinks, light pur­ples, Colina’s work gives the imme­di­ate feel­ing of a children’s book. Through the setting’s abstract forms she com­poses a fantasy-like play­ground for the char­ac­ters in her nar­ra­tives. Her fig­ures range in form, from a shape anal­o­gous to human, to crea­tures that look more sim­i­lar to insects, bac­te­ria, or per­haps an antic­i­pated alien? Regard­less of their rep­re­sen­ta­tive asso­ci­a­tions, Colina’s char­ac­ters’ rela­tion­ships and inter­ac­tions def­i­nitely add to the com­plex plot that exists within each of her pieces. Maybe more visu­ally intrigu­ing than the fig­ures within each piece are the intri­cate and involved land­scape fix­tures that serve as a sort of cor­nu­copia of habi­tat and activ­ity for her char­ac­ters. Seem­ingly ever-growing, they flower out­ward, increas­ing expo­nen­tially in size with each outer layer. They pull the viewer’s gaze in towards their reced­ing cen­ter. Often appear­ing curi­ous and ques­tion­able, these forms take on a dif­fer­ent feel­ing from the lively color and zest of the rest of the piece. At times they even trans­late an erotic qual­ity with the cen­tral hole sur­round­ing by the many folds and lay­ers, often hav­ing pipes and beams, sig­ni­fy­ing phal­luses, pass­ing through. Upon first glance, Colina’s work is ani­mated, play­ful, and seem­ingly child-like, how­ever, with fur­ther obser­va­tion it begins to take on an ironic transformation.