Hulda Guzmán
Photo: Eddy Guzmán
Hulda Guzmán
Dominican Republic born 1984
Level 2
NGV International
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PROJECT
Inspired by Hulda Guzmán’s immediate surroundings of Samaná in the Dominican Republic, this painting centres on a portrait of the artist dancing wildly on a table, surrounded by frolicking cats. The modernist style of the depicted interiors refers metaphorically to human-imposed order and the global networks of extraction, production and consumption that underpin modern hyper-consumerism – a modern economic engine founded on colonialism. This allusion to imperialist history emerges in contrast to the frolicking figures. With elements of Surrealism, Mexican muralism and Caribbean folk traditions, Guzmán’s paintings conjure a sense of harmony between human and natural worlds.
ABOUT
Hulda Guzmán was born in 1984 in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. She lives and works between Santo Domingo and the rainforest-covered mountains of Samaná, on the country’s north-east coast. Guzmán studied fine arts and illustration at Escuela de Diseño Altos de Chavón, La Romana, Dominican Republic and went on to receive a BA in visual arts from Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas, Mexico City. Drawing on Surrealism, Mexican Muralism and Caribbean folk traditions, Guzmán’s junglescapes and studio scenes conjure portals to a mythic realm. Charged with postcolonial and ecological discourses, her paintings revitalise tropes of the natural world as a repository for our wilder instincts.
Purchased with funds donated by anonymous donors and NGV Foundation, 2022