Ciara Barsotti
ARTIST STATEMENT
Even though I didn't grow up in the desert, painting the Southwest is in my blood; my Great Grandmother raised her family on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon and painted those landscapes, too. This is my contribution to the ongoing love story with the American Southwest that I share with many people and makers before me. Of course, I had to throw in these “Space Cowgirls” because I have always been drawn to the fantastic in art and stories. I imagine the Cowgirls are from the future, coming back to a time when Earth was worth visiting. I hope my work inspires people to go see these landscapes for themselves and to do what they can to protect them for future generations.
BIO
American artist Ciara Barsotti was born in Dublin, Ireland, was raised in California, and currently lives in Virginia with her husband and two cats. Her vibrant and dramatic acrylic paintings on canvas are immediately recognizable by her use of saturated colors, bold cloudscapes, and signature science fiction-inspired features. Her current series, “Space Cowgirls,” began in a painting class in 2016 and has expanded to more than a dozen paintings, in which she combines tracing paper, pen, pencil, and paint to capture the multidimensionality of her subjects and breadth of the American Desert. Her work has been featured in Southwest Art Magazine and her first painting in the series, “The Domes,” was a finalist in the Bay Area 2017 Bombay Sapphire Artisan Series.
PRESS + PUBLICATIONS
2019 Hashtag Art Mag Blog (online interview)
2018 Odd Duck Press Blog (online interview)
2018 Southwest Art Magazine: 21 Under 31 (September issue, online and print)
2018 Voyage Phoenix: The Thought-Provokers (online interview)
2018 BOOOOOOOM.com (online)
2018 Horseshoes & Hand Grenades, Vol. 1, Issue 1, pg 48
AWARDS
2017 SF Bay Area Regional Semi-Finalist: Bombay Sapphire Artisan Series
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
Sept 2019 Space Cowgirls, Durango Arts Center, Durango, CO
April 2019 Space Cowgirls, Park View Gallery at Glen Echo Park, Glen Echo, MD
May 2018 Space Cowgirls, Iveta Gourmet, Santa Cruz, CA
Jan 2018 Space Cowgirls, Mandala Holistic Studio, Santa Cruz, CA
Dec 2017 Animal Studies in Ink, Palace Arts, Santa Cruz, CA
Aug 2017 Space Cowgirls, The Abbey, Santa Cruz, CA
July 2017 Space Cowgirls, Lulu Carpenter’s, Santa Cruz, CA
Jun 2017 Space Cowgirls, Coffee Cat, Scotts Valley, CA
Dec 2014 The Buffalo Show, The Bagelry, Santa Cruz, CA
Nov 2014 The Buffalo Show, Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing, CA
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2020 Art of the Cosmos, Los Angeles, CA
2019 Present from the Past, Art League Rhode Island, Providence, RI
2017 Bombay Sapphire Artisan Series, Joyce Gordon Gallery, Oakland, CA
2016 Student Showcase, Cabrillo College, Aptos, CA
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