2 AM Thoughts @ Finale Art File - 08 Feb

2 AM Thoughts @ Finale Art File - 08 Feb - 04 March, 2024

Mark Andy Garcia’s 2 AM Thoughts

It is said the human mind is not conditioned to be awake after midnight. In the artistic process, nocturnal wakefulness is a norm, if not preferred. When there is stillness and quiet, introspection and creativity thrive. In this space, Mark Andy Garcia’s 2AM Thoughts are revealed in the coded gesture of painting. His recent works are continuation of a string of contemplations previously shown in his exhibitions In Due Time, Chasing Sunsets, Countless Tries, and This too shall pass. Visually, they appear nebulous and romanticized but nevertheless are illustrations of a manifold of actual or imagined narratives.

The artist as storyteller reprocesses the images of the flowers, silhouette of a person or a distant home amidst lush forests, an entranced man. They reappear in various states of Garcia, seemingly as a way of coming back or returning to some sort of emotion, proposition, or disposition. In his developing maturity as a person and an artist, self-reflexivity is discernible. The works When Midnight Arrives and The Morning After materializes a divergence. One shows a precision in its horizon line and the accuracy of the reflection are, in its painterly manner, constitute the clarity and balance; the other appears agile and playful, a bit skewed and in motion, the act (and joy) of painting (and living in the moment) more palpable.

There is a pathway in At a Loss for Words, the field of view disappears at the center. In Garcia’s recent series, he intentionally ends the images inside the edges of the frame. Possibly cueing us that as he shares his 2AM thoughts, we can navigate through them via the visuality of his chronicles. His works are encompassing enough to make us feel the resonances. They equip us to situate ourselves in the orbit of and in art, to find calm in our own minds before or after midnight.

Exhibition notes by Con Cabrera

Photos, video and music by Rogelio Castillo II

"When Midnight Arrives", oil on canvas, 7x7 feet