ENGLISH II CASTELLANO

Carlota P. Arenas born in Tinaquillo, Cojedes State, Venezuela. She initiate as an autodidact in 1973. Then participated for several years in the workshop of Master Pedro Centeno Vallenllla and after she studied at the School Cristobal Rojas and England.Carlota Perez Arenas was born in Tinaquillo, Cojedes State, Venezuela, in 1918. She began as a self-taught artist in 1973. Then she participated for several years in the workshop of Master Pedro Centeno Vallenllla and after that she studied at the Cristobal Rojas School and also in England. She participates in several salons and exhibitions, including an individual retrospective in 2010. She died in Panamá in March 2019 a month after her 101st birthday.

Six periods can be distinguished in her trajectory:

(1976-1988) - REALISM AND FIRST EXPERIMENTATIONS.

(1989-1991) - TRANSPARENCIES AND DISSOLUTIONS.

(1991-1992) - TEXTURES AND PASTES.

(1992-1994) - PETROLEUM: BLACK, WHITE AND COLOR.

(1995-2003) - BEYOND THE CANVAS: SERIES, COLLAGES AND DIGITIZED WORK.

(2003-Present) - ASSEMBLIES AND INSTALLATIONS.

Since childhood, in her native Tinaquillo, she loved those endless prairie landscapes; some months dry and dusty, others covered with water as far as the eye could see. When she saw her father go riding across his fields, she imagined Bolivar or Paez riding across the plains. The house was full of tales of the heroism of her ancestor, General Perez Arroyo, who, as they said, had continued fighting with his men after being shot and losing his tongue.

Those landscapes and those heroes will always fill her imagination. When her father died, her mother decided to move with the family to Valencia and it was there, as a teenager, that Carlota Perez Arenas was able to fulfil her dream of taking painting classes. She loved the smell of oil paints, but she was terrified of the white canvas. She tried to fill it quickly with some stains in order to overcome the fear and continue painting. Sometimes she felt the need to rebel and invent the colours or leave the edges unfinished. But she restrained herself. Of her paintings in this youthful period, there is only one left: “The Vulture Mountain”

She had to wait many decades and watch her five children grow before she could enjoy the infinite freedom of the artist. Along the way she discovered photography and became deeply involved in it. She became fascinated with the human face and delved into its secrets, while learning the effects of chiaroscuro. She learned to reveal and spent long hours in the darkroom experimenting with different ways to achieve dramatism. In 1956 her "Fisherman" won a prize in a contest in Germany. That was very encouraging, but life circumstances led her away from photography.

El Pescador

Meanwhile her youthful love of painting remained hidden but alive. One day, by chance, she had lingered at the breakfast table and began to observe the wooden wall. In the grain of the wood she saw a very expressive face and wanted to paint it. The only thing she had at hand was the coffee grains that remained in the cloth filter or "manga". She looked for a piece of cardboard, took the wet coffee in her fingers and began to paint with great joy. Since that day she never stopped experimenting with whatever and materials she could find. From oil paints to petroleum, from acrylic to watercolour, from Prismacolor crayons to charcoal, from the flat canvas to the collage and to sculpture. Painting on canvas or wood, on sheets of acrylic plastic or on coloured paper. She constructs figures with wire and wool fibre over wire-netting and then combines them with the out of focus lights of a TV set or whatever else catches her eye. She learned to use the computer to be able to assemble collages and to experiment with images. She made sculptures with clay and with the shells of the Chaguaramo palm leaves.

She admired Reveron and Picasso; she sought teachers, from Pedro Centeno Vallenllla to Gladys Gonzalez and Roberto Medina, but always maintained her absolute rebellion against any school and any limitations. From the day she resumed her passion for painting until she approached her 100th birthday, she traveled the world of artistic expression with the same courage and freedom with which her father rode his horse across the plains into infinity.

INDIVIDUAL

2010 "Arenas Unlimited". Retrospective exhibition at the Art Center Daniel Suarez, Caracas

1993 "The Triunviras" Exhibition Spaces Viva Mexico, Caracas

1991 "Faces" Gallery Mayz Lyon, Caracas

1991 "Faces of Carlota Arenas" Galleries Muses, Maracaibo

COLLECTIVES

2011 Collective 25 editions Twenty-five works. Art Center Daniel Suarez, Caracas.

2011 Collective Color Shape texture. Art Center Daniel Suarez, Caracas

1999 Collective. Palace of Conventions, Havana, Cuba

1998 Collective Internet Tibet. Art4.net

1996 "17 Venezuelan Artists", Mallorca, Spain

1994 Engravings / "Mini Prints" Gallery America, Caracas

1990/91 Annual Collective Gallery Mayz Lyon, Caracas

1990 Gallery La Otrabanda, Merida

1990 Gallery Braulio Salazar, Valencia

1990 Gallery America, Caracas

1988 Collective. Ibero-American Institute, Caracas

1985/86/91 Collective samples, Caracas Museum

1985 Cristobal Rojas School, Spiral Gallery

1981-85 Participation in the Annual Workshop Shows Pedro Centeno Vallenllla

HALLS

2006 Travelling exhibition tribute to Generalissimo Francisco de Miranda, Historical Heritage of the Nation

2005 Mega exhibition in honor of Jesus Soto, Alejandro Otero Museum, Caracas

1995 VI Biennial of Visual Arts Francisco Lazo Martí, Calabozo

1995 III Salon of Plastic Arts Cristóbal Rojas Mirandino

1994 I Municipal Hall of Visual Arts, Centro Consolidado

1993/95/2005 II, III and IV National Biennial of Art of Puerto La Cruz

1993/4 IV and V Municipal Hall of Visual Arts Los Salias

1993 IV Biennial of Visual Arts Francisco Lazo Martí, Calabozo

1993 II Municipal Hall of Guanare

1993 II Biennial of Art, Puerto La Cruz

1992 XII Painting Hall of the Ateneo de Carupano

1992 II National Painting, Guanare

1991 I National Art Biennial, Puerto La Cruz

1990/98 XVI and XXIII National Exhibition of Art Aragua, Maracay

1989 XX National Painting, Centennial Armando Reveron. Museum La Rinconada

1984 I Annual Exhibition of Painting and Drawing, Art Salon City Cagua

1983 VII Art Exhibition "Tito Salas", School of Visual Arts R. Monasteries, Maracay

1983 I Municipal Hall of Sucre District

1982/83/93/94/95 XI/XII/XXI/XXII and XXIII Municipal Hall Plastic Arts Prize. Municipal council, DF

1982 Hall of Plastic Arts. "Gral. Jose Antonio Paez". Congress of the Republic

1982 Biennial of Painting and Drawing, Maracay.

AWARDS AND MENTIONS

GOLD MEDAL, I Hall Sucre Municipal District.

FIRST PRIZE Painting Mention, IV Municipal Hall Los Salias.

HONORARY MENTION, XII Municipal Arts Salon City, Tribute to Elisa Elvira Zuloaga.

1st MENTION IN DRAWING, IV Biennial of Visual Arts, Francisco Lazo Martí.