Dreamscapes and Liberation: An Interview with Mercedes Llanos
As part of her current exhibition at Spazio Amanita gallery in New York, artist Mercedes Llanos invites us into a world that is both deeply personal and universally resonant. Known for her large-scale works and unconventional use of materials, Llanos delves into powerful themes such as female freedom, motherhood, and power dynamics. Her exhibition, "Te Soñe Primero", showcases profound and moving pieces where fluid female forms intertwine with reflections on motherhood and transformation.
In this interview, Mercedes Llanos discusses her creative process, her dream-inspired art, and her personal journey as she confronts societal norms and explores the liberation of the female body through her work. She shares fascinating insights into the evolution of her art, her influences, and what it means for her to exhibit in a city like New York.
You’ve mentioned that your dreams are a significant source of inspiration.
Can you walk us through how a dream might evolve into one of your
paintings?
Often I wake up and stay thinking a while about the dream I had, sometimes I have multiple dreams in the same night. If a dream leaves me thinking, I analyze it as it’s trying to tell me something about my psyche. I draw the dream in large scale and then paint it. Usually these dreams involve various people and sexual encounters, they make for very interesting compositions.
Many of your works explore emotional extremes, such as love versus hate or pleasure versus pain. How do you balance these polarities in your work, and what do you hope the viewer takes away from this tension ?
The polarities, I think, keep the painting in perpetual movement. Moving back and forth from pleasure and pain, love and hate, masculine and feminine, are all tactics that keep your mind in motion as in “what’s actually going on here?” And visually I put effort in creating a painting that lacks stillness, that keeps you coming back for more.
You often use unconventional materials, such as menstrual blood, in your paintings. What significance do these materials hold for you, and how do they contribute to the narratives within your art ?
I’ve used menstrual blood mostly on drawings. These are ritualistic drawings that come cyclically. They represent the end and the beginning of a cycle. Menstruation is a moment in which I feel specially connected with the earth, as the vessel of my body opens and gives as well as receives. I stand on top of the paper and pour the menstrual cup on it as I dance with my hands and feet to create a drawing. It’s a beautiful thing. Charcoal and blood. In short, the menstrual drawings contribute to the mystic and female aspects of my work.
Your works frequently address themes of gender, power dynamics, andb
patriarchy, particularly within the context of your South American
upbringing. How has your background shaped the themes you explore,
and have those themes evolved over time ?
Growing up in a predominantly sexist household, and migrating from a sexist culture to a more feminist one which I consider is the American culture (where men are much more submissive). I always compared the two places and became anger at how things where (mostly) in Argentina and especially in my household. I think the way I grew up shaped the type of art I am making today.
Female figures in your work are often depicted in liberated forms, free from anatomical limits. What drives your interest in depicting these fluid and dynamic bodies ?
I love this take on the figures, It’s something I strive for, for the figures to extend beyond the periphery of the skin. Sometimes morphing into each other and the space inhabited. it’s something very intentional and at the same time natural as I’ve always taken everything to its limit, the edge of the canvas or paper. I’ll always draw as big (or bigger) as the space I’m provided, since I was a little girl. I think the conceptualization of this comes from a deep desire to connect with others, to become one.
You’ve talked about addressing the repression of female freedom, both personally and collectively. How do you see your work contributing to larger conversations about female empowerment and societal norms ?
Yes, I believe my dreams are actively working out the repression I feel, and have felt both personally and collectively. Not only in my current life, but also past and through my ancestors. I come from a family of female artists who have had a very difficult time working, showing and living as an artist, and I’M the one who is finally able to break this boundary. One of my personal objectives has been to inspire young girls and marginalized people and to allow them to dream and believe they can do this too.
You’ve cited Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painters like Toulouse-
Lautrec and Monet as influences. How do their styles resonate with your
own, and how have you adapted their techniques to fit the themes you
explore ?
Toulouse-Lautrec especially has been a big influence in me since I was young. The way he portrayed movement in his paintings and how drawing is a prominent aspect of his painting is mesmerizing to me. And the fact that he was an outcast also, how he hung out with marginalized people and the queer of the time.
He seemed like a cool guy to hang around. Post impressionists took figurative painting to a new level, crossing the boundary of skin, and showing the soul inhabiting space. Edvard Munch is one of the most influential artists on me of the time. His sensitivity can be felt throughout time.
Your paintings are often quite large, sometimes over 8 feet tall. What impact does the scale of your work have on the emotional and philosophical themes you wish to convey ?
The size of my work comes from two things. 1. I have to work large, I feel my body tingling as I’m painting large scale, it’s a mere physical thing, I let myself go and move my entire body freely to create a painting. And 2. I want a physical response from the viewer, I want the work to have presence and to impose itself on the viewer, as something bigger than me, it’s own thing. A very abex thing to say haha.
What role has living and working in New York City played in you development as an artist, compared to your earlier experiences in Argentina ?
I lived in Tennessee mostly before moving to New York, and in Argentina as a child. I have to say Argentina is much more comparable to New York than Tennessee, so in a way living in Brooklyn, feels a bit like home. As they say, New York is not USA. My experience in Tennessee was a very different one though and very shocking.
In terms of painting, living in New York has given me access to some of the best paintings I have ever seen so it set the bar for me to go higher and higher every day. The possibilities are endless. Seeing some of my favorite art in person has allowed me to really put focus on texture and the importance of seeing work in person.
I don’t think anyone has seen my work if they have not seen it in person. I fight the idea of seeing work through a screen.
You’ve exhibited internationally, from New York to Paris. How does the reception of your work vary in different cultural contexts, especially given the deeply personal and political nature of your themes ?
I think when I exhibited in Argentina in 2023, there was an obvious need for that type of work in a political context. My work directly corresponds to the political upheaval of the time. In Paris and New York, feminism and gender violence is not such an issue (I don’t think) but it still very much a contemporary subject. I think my work fits great in Europe as it is much more welcoming to paintings revolving pain and suffering, and darker subject matters. In the US, I think, softer themes are more welcoming.
My current solo exhibition with Amanita in NYC speaks of themes of pregnancy, birth, and motherhood and it has been very well appreciated. I think right now there is a wave of artists working around these themes in the US so I am part of this movement.
How do you see your work evolving in the next few years, both in terms of
scale and subject matter?
In the next few years I see myself working in the same scale or even larger, doing more installation drawings and exploring themes of motherhood, as I am a new mother of a baby boy. I am going back to depicting my dreams and focusing in the psychology of dreams, as I have been having very vivid and interesting dreams lately.
I am working on the fusion of painting and drawing and developing a personal visual language dependent on ambiance through color, fluid mark making and the verge between figuration and abstraction.
You’ve expressed that it doesn’t matter if viewers love or hate your work, as long as it makes them feel something. What’s been the most unexpected or memorable reaction to your art so far ?
Recently in my last opening reception, a few people shed tears experiencing the show. One man in particular, Reacted emotionally to a painting where I am breastfeeding, because he lost his mother recently and deeply felt that connection through the painting.
What do you hope women in particular, who may identify with your experiences of repression or liberation, feel when they see your work ?
I hope they can feel strength through the paintings, and that they can set free from whatever is capturing them at the moment.
