Vicky Uslé

Critical text

Vicky Uslé (b. 1981, Santander) has a remarkable painterly sensibility for the impact of surfaces and the space of action in her drawings. The crayon leaves rough traces in earthy, natural colours that reveal where one world ends and another begins. The apparently abstract motifs take on recognizable features at times that reflect visions, the optical experiences of the artist, to transcend the distinction between figurative and abstract, focusing on personal perception. The result is often an explosion of pastel colours, sometimes alternating with collage and ink. Her works on paper convey impressions, tactile sensations, architectural profiles, emotionally restrained glimpses of nature that resurface in the intimacy of the paper, a posteriori. The series of collages Uslé began to make in 2008 is based on layers of colour, aligned one beneath the next with great precision. White volumes loom over these coloured stripes, redesigning the images like a photographic negative. Her drawing is entirely based on the relationship between two or three elements, on the material character of the crayon on paper and the relationship between different forms, remembered and overlapped in a timeless perspective.

Text by Irina Zucca Alessandrelli