Spotlight Artist

Jana Marie Cariddi

MFA Annual
Artist profile photo

Infected Landscape

Surreal landscape with holes, red tentacles, yellow figures, and an orange sunset.

acrylic, ground pumice stone, piping paint, and glass beads on custom wood panel

Cyclic Void

Abstract heart shape with spikes, tubes, and organic patterns in red, pink, and cream colors.

acrylic and ground pumice stone on custom wood panel

You In Reverse

Abstract creature with chains, red and black spikes, and colorful wing-like shapes.

acrylic, oil, and glazed ceramic on custom wood panel

Featured in New American Paintings1 / 3

Artist Statement

 I seek comfort in the corporeal. Through bodily motifs such as orifices, cellulite, and cystic pearls, I am interested in creating worlds that bring benign and malignant forces into harmony. My shaped panels are obscured and distorted to generate tension. The tension resides not only in the mysterious shapes, but in the exploration of bodily containment within these contorted forms and surfaces. The textural anomalies on the sleek surfaces of my paintings serve as points of seduction, adding another layer beyond form and color to unveil palpable, sensory realms.

My concept of growth is a non-linear, cyclical process that demands intro-spection within my relationships and surroundings. I reflect on personal growth cycles using my body, the natural world, and my internal state as both setting and protagonist. In this perpetual evolution, the worlds I create abandon logic, reject conventionality, and embrace cyclical transformation, celebrating the endurance of the female form and spirit. In my paintings, opposing forces, including decay and regeneration and desire and repulsion, govern simultaneously as metaphors for the complexities of our real world.

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