Hello and Introduction
When people ask me where I am from, I instantly respond, “Do you mean where I was born, where I grew up, or where I live now?” Cuba, Texas, Florida? All of them? None of them? Cuban? American? Cuban-American? Maybe I exist only on the Hyphen...where ever that is. I honestly do not yet have an answer to what seems like a simple question to most people but below is an attempt to summarize at least who I am as an artist: what I do & have done.BRIEF BIOGRAPHY: Lilian Garcia-RoigBorn in Havana, Cuba in 1966, I was raised and worked in Texas for 30 years but now live and work in Tallahassee, Florida. My latest works feature large-scale on-site painting installations of dense landscapes that overwhelm the viewer’s perceptual senses. Each individual painting is created over the course of the day in an intense wet-on-wet cumulative manner that underscores the complex nature of trying to capture first-hand the multidimensional and ever-changing experience of being in that specific location. My works are as much about the materiality of the paint and the physicality of the painting process as they are about mixing and mashing the illusionist possibilities of painting with its true abstract nature.I have shown nationally at such places as the Americas Society Gallery in NYC, the National Museum of Women in the Arts and the Art Museum of the Americas, both in Washington D.C and extensively in the south, especially in Texas and Florida. Internationally, I have shown at the Chopo Museum in Mexico City and Byblos Art Gallery in Verona, Italy.My MFA is from the University of Pennsylvania (1990) and my BFA is from Southern Methodist University (1988). From 1991 to 2000 I was a tenured Associate Professor of Studio Art at the University of Texas at Austin and in 2001 was a Visiting Associate Professor at the University of California at Berkeley in the Department of Art Practice before deciding to move to Tallahassee where I became the Director of Graduate Studies in Studio Art from 2002-2008. Currently I am a professor at FSU where I serve as Chair of the Department of Art.Major awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship in the Creative Arts-Fine Arts, a Joan Mitchell Foundation Award in Painting, a Mid-America Arts Alliance/NEA Fellowship Award in Painting, State of Florida Individual Artist Fellowship Award in painting, Blackwell Prize in Painting & a Kimbrough Award from the Dallas Museum of Art. Residencies include a Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture Fellowship, Vermont Studio Center Artists Fellowship, MacDowell Colony Milton & Sally Avery Fellowship, Joan Mitchell Center AIR, Omi Milton and Sally Avery Fellow and a visiting artist at the Ludwig Foundation in Havana, Cuba.
A Decade of Highlights: 2004-2014
Over the past year I have been working on two shows that each dealt with the idea of a decade. One was the “A Mysterious Clarity 2.0”, a show that brought back, but in updated form in 2014, the original 2004 grouping of Burggraf, Garcia-Roig & Messersmith at 621 Gallery’s show “A Mysterious Clarity” and the other is my upcoming (fall 2015) solo exhibition at Cernuda Arte in Coral Gables titled “In the Thick of It: A Decade of Painting in Florida”. The latter will have an exhibition catalog with a curatorial essay by Carol Damian, Director of the Frost Museum at FIU.Because I came to blogging later in my artistic career and because I have been actively working with the concept of a decade it made sense to me to use the decade theme here as a way to summarize highlights from my fairly recent past so as to better contextualize my current work for viewers. With this added back ground information, visitors to the studio news/blog will be able to better understand where I am coming from and where I might be going.I will be posting a series of entries grouped by chronological order starting from 2004. The subjects of the entries will mostly be important art-related events such as exhibitions, awards, reviews, residencies, or even a major new series of works...but there will also be occasional MISC entries just because:)
2024: Deering Estate Artist-In-Residence
Special thanks goes to Rangsook Yoon Ph.D., Senior Curator at the Sarasota Art Museum, for writing a curatorial essay for the catalog "Cumulative Nature" produced by Valley House Gallery in conjunction with my show "On-Sitefulness".
Wonderful to be selected as a 2024 Artist-In-Residency at the amazing Deering Estate in south Miami. The AIR Program offers professional visual, literary, performing, and cross-disciplinary artists the opportunity to pursue innovative projects and studio work, connect with other artists, and engage the public while interacting with the historical, architectural, intellectual, archeological, and natural elements of the Estate’s inspiring environment.
https://deeringestate.org/arts-exhibitions/art-residencies/artists/
https://deeringestate.org/arts-exhibitions/art-residencies/#
Cumulative Nature: Deering Banyan Diptych
, 2024. oil on canvas. 4' x 6'
2024: Artist-In-Residence at University of Miami
Special thanks goes to Rangsook Yoon Ph.D., Senior Curator at the Sarasota Art Museum, for writing a curatorial essay for the catalog "Cumulative Nature" produced by Valley House Gallery in conjunction with my show "On-Sitefulness".
During my spring Scholar/Artist-In-Residence period at University of Miami, I was able to flush out and prototype a small version of my "Re-Collecting Roig" project that focused on the over 500 specimens collected by Juan Tomas Roig that are currently in the New York Botanical Garden's Steere Herbarium. This research and developing works were initially funded by my 2021 Guggenheim Fellowship in the Creative Arts with additional support and thanks to South Arts- for a 2024 Career Opportunity Grant.
2024: Byrdcliffe Artist-in-Residence
Special thanks goes to Rangsook Yoon Ph.D., Senior Curator at the Sarasota Art Museum, for writing a curatorial essay for the catalog "Cumulative Nature" produced by Valley House Gallery in conjunction with my show "On-Sitefulness".
If in the Upstate NY area, drop by the Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild Gallery to see the 2023 AIR show-
Closing reception & informal artist talks on June 9, from 4-6pm - (I will be there)
2024: “When the Tropics are Quiet”
Special thanks goes to Rangsook Yoon Ph.D., Senior Curator at the Sarasota Art Museum, for writing a curatorial essay for the catalog "Cumulative Nature" produced by Valley House Gallery in conjunction with my show "On-Sitefulness".
When the Tropics are Quiet
Curated by Vladimir Cybil Charlier
March 10- May
2024: “Pastorale”
Special thanks goes to Rangsook Yoon Ph.D., Senior Curator at the Sarasota Art Museum, for writing a curatorial essay for the catalog "Cumulative Nature" produced by Valley House Gallery in conjunction with my show "On-Sitefulness".
2024: Momentum Gallery
Special thanks goes to Rangsook Yoon Ph.D., Senior Curator at the Sarasota Art Museum, for writing a curatorial essay for the catalog "Cumulative Nature" produced by Valley House Gallery in conjunction with my show "On-Sitefulness".
If in Asheville, NC stop in to the gallery or see my paintings at: https://momentumgallery.com/exhibitions/103/works/artworks6250/
2024: Enchanted Canopy
Special thanks goes to Rangsook Yoon Ph.D., Senior Curator at the Sarasota Art Museum, for writing a curatorial essay for the catalog "Cumulative Nature" produced by Valley House Gallery in conjunction with my show "On-Sitefulness".
2024: Valley House
Special thanks goes to Rangsook Yoon Ph.D., Senior Curator at the Sarasota Art Museum, for writing a curatorial essay for the catalog "Cumulative Nature" produced by Valley House Gallery in conjunction with my show "On-Sitefulness".
Special thanks goes to Rangsook Yoon Ph.D., Senior Curator at the Sarasota Art Museum, for writing a curatorial essay for the catalog "Cumulative Nature" produced by Valley House Gallery in conjunction with my show "On-Sitefulness".
2023: IBIS
If you are going to attend Art Basel Miami Beach week- please go by Art Miami, where Cernuda Arte will be showcasing some of my most recent on-site Florida works like the image above. Cumulative Nature: North Florida Diptych, 2019, 4' x 6'
State of Florida: UnControlled Burn
, 2019, 48" x 72" diptych
Presenting two new exhibitions to bring in the New Year:
An Outside Chance features the works by artists Ann Marie Auricchio, Keith Crowley, Lilian Garcia-Roig, and Mark Messersmith. These four artists, currently working in the south, make work that responds to their environment. Curated around this theme, the exhibition highlights a variety of forms and interpretation related to landscape.
Dry Cypress Bayou: A solo exhibition of sculptural drawings by New Orleans Artist Hannah Chalew is also centered around landscape and surrounding environment.
Both Exhibitions open January 3rd with a reception January 7th, 5-9 pm in conjunction with the Arts District Art Walk & run through February 25.
IBIS contemporary art gallery
705 Camp StreetNew Orleans, LA 70130
Cumulative Nature: Charred Gateway
(St Marks, FL) 2005, 48"x36"
2023: MoFA Uncorked (Deep Roots)
If you are going to attend Art Basel Miami Beach week- please go by Art Miami, where Cernuda Arte will be showcasing some of my most recent on-site Florida works like the image above. Cumulative Nature: North Florida Diptych, 2019, 4' x 6'
“MoFA Uncorked: Deep Roots” will highlight FSU Department of Art faculty member Lilian Garcia-Roig, Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor, and Anjali Austin, chair of the School of Dance from 5:30-7 p.m. Wednesday, May 17, at the Museum of Fine Arts located at 530 W. Call St. Garcia-Roig will discuss her work “Plein-Aired Histories,” a series of landscape paintings created during her residency as the recipient of the Blackwell Prize exploring the complicated history of a rural Georgia town. She will discuss her creative process and the research and methodology behind the pieces.Learn more here: https://news.fsu.edu/news/arts-humanities/2023/05/15/fsu-mofa-hosts-new-cocktail-hour-exhibition-series/
2023: Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor
If you are going to attend Art Basel Miami Beach week- please go by Art Miami, where Cernuda Arte will be showcasing some of my most recent on-site Florida works like the image above. Cumulative Nature: North Florida Diptych, 2019, 4' x 6'
Lilian Garcia-Roig, a professor in the Department of Art, has been named Florida State University’s 2023-2024 Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor.
Read more about this here: https://news.fsu.edu/news/arts-humanities/2023/04/19/renowned-fsu-artist-named-2023-2024-robert-o-lawton-distinguished-professor/
2023: Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild
If you are going to attend Art Basel Miami Beach week- please go by Art Miami, where Cernuda Arte will be showcasing some of my most recent on-site Florida works like the image above. Cumulative Nature: North Florida Diptych, 2019, 4' x 6'
Honored to be selected as the 2023 Pollock-Krasner Artists-in-Residence Fellow at Byrdcliffe. Byrdcliffe was founded in 1902 so it is the oldest continuously operating "artist residency" in the country. The Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild is a regional center for the arts located in Woodstock, New York. Every year the Byrdcliffe Artists-in-Residence program provides over 60 visual artists, writers, architects, and composers of exceptional talent from all over the country uninterrupted creative time within the serene natural setting of the Byrdcliffe Arts Colony. Special thanks to the super amazing director at the time, Anna Marie Rockwell, whose expertise, professionalism & dedication made the experience exceptional.
2023: Unsovereign Elements
If you are going to attend Art Basel Miami Beach week- please go by Art Miami, where Cernuda Arte will be showcasing some of my most recent on-site Florida works like the image above. Cumulative Nature: North Florida Diptych, 2019, 4' x 6'
Very excited to be featured in this exhibition alongside so many excellent artists- for more more information on the show, including a curatorial statement, please touch this LINK.
Show opens Thursday, March 30, 2023 - 6:00pm (with a reception and artists conversation with me) and runs through Wednesday, May 10, 2023 - 6:00pm
Brodsky Gallery in the Kelly Writers House on the UPenn campus (3805 Locust Walk, Philadelphia, PA 19104)
2023: CORE Fellow at Millay Arts
If you are going to attend Art Basel Miami Beach week- please go by Art Miami, where Cernuda Arte will be showcasing some of my most recent on-site Florida works like the image above. Cumulative Nature: North Florida Diptych, 2019, 4' x 6'
Honored to be selected as a CORE Fellow at Millay Arts for the month of October. Founded in 1973 and located at “Steepletop,” the historic estate of poet/activist Edna St. Vincent Millay (one of the first women to win a Pulitzer Prize), Millay Arts is a nonprofit organization that offers multidisciplinary artists residencies on our campus as well as in the community. Located in the Hudson Valley, nestled against the Berkshire foothills of Austerlitz and surrounded by the beautiful Harvey Mountain State Forest. Millay Arts supports the work and creative process of multidisciplinary artists through a range of residencies that enrich lives and communities locally and globally.
2023: Milton and Sally Avery Fellow at Art Omi
If you are going to attend Art Basel Miami Beach week- please go by Art Miami, where Cernuda Arte will be showcasing some of my most recent on-site Florida works like the image above. Cumulative Nature: North Florida Diptych, 2019, 4' x 6'
Super honored to the the Milton and Sally Avery Fellow at Art Omi this summer- It was an amazing experience to be surrounded by such talented artists from around the word- Those three weeks in upstate NY were highly enjoyable (and productive, despite the incessant rains and Canadian smoke). Special thanks to Francis Greenberg for supporting such an expansive and creative residency and Art Park as well as to Claudia Cannizzaro & Nicole Hayes for making our 2023 Artists residency so special-
Learn more about the artists here: https://artomi.org/art-omi-artists-2023/
2023: Art Miami Residence
If you are going to attend Art Basel Miami Beach week- please go by Art Miami, where Cernuda Arte will be showcasing some of my most recent on-site Florida works like the image above. Cumulative Nature: North Florida Diptych, 2019, 4' x 6'
If you are going to attend Art Basel Miami Beach week- please go by Art Miami, where Cernuda Arte will be showcasing some of my most recent on-site Florida works like the image above. Cumulative Nature: North Florida Diptych, 2019, 4' x 6'
Special Thanks to Susanna Coffey and all of the folks who visited the open studio where I show some examples from each of the three residencies I attended this summer/fall- Can't wait to see you all back in NY this spring!
2022: Gallery 114 at HCC
Join Gallery114@HCC Ybor City Campus for the opening reception of Hyphenated Nature on Thursday, February 17, 2022 from 5:00–8:00 p.m.
Who we are and where we are from—two seemingly simple inquiries—are complex territories for negotiation that shape the core of our personal identity. Florida-based artist Lilian Garcia-Roig (b. 1966, Cuba) uses landscape painting as a vehicle for examining notions like sense of place, belonging, and identity in both perceptually-based plein-air paintings and conceptually-based studio works. In Hyphenated Nature at Gallery114@HCC, Garcia-Roig displays her two approaches to landscape painting side-by-side, reconciling on-site works that capture dense, expressive vegetation with paintings made in her studio using Cuban soil. Seen through the lens of Garcia-Roig’s Cuban-American experience, these distinct bodies of work call to mind the intricate nature of one’s own attachment to time, place, and the lands we inhabit.
A talk by artist Lilian Garcia-Roig will begin at 6:00 p.m. in the Mainstage Theater, YPAB.
Join Gallery114@HCC Ybor City Campus for the opening reception of Hyphenated Nature on Thursday, February 17, 2022 from 5:00–8:00 p.m.
Who we are and where we are from—two seemingly simple inquiries—are complex territories for negotiation that shape the core of our personal identity. Florida-based artist Lilian Garcia-Roig (b. 1966, Cuba) uses landscape painting as a vehicle for examining notions like sense of place, belonging, and identity in both perceptually-based plein-air paintings and conceptually-based studio works. In Hyphenated Nature at Gallery114@HCC, Garcia-Roig displays her two approaches to landscape painting side-by-side, reconciling on-site works that capture dense, expressive vegetation with paintings made in her studio using Cuban soil. Seen through the lens of Garcia-Roig’s Cuban-American experience, these distinct bodies of work call to mind the intricate nature of one’s own attachment to time, place, and the lands we inhabit.
A talk by artist Lilian Garcia-Roig will begin at 6:00 p.m. in the Mainstage Theater, YPAB.
Check out some of the Reviews of the Tampa show at:
83 Degrees- by Caitlin Albritton: https://www.83degreesmedia.com/forgood/highlights-for-what-to-see-in-Tampa-Bay-Area-arts-in-February-020122.aspx
https://www.hccfl.edu/campus-life/arts/galleries-hcc/gallery114/past-exhibitions-gallery-114
Tampa Bay Times- review by Maggie Duffy: https://www.tampabay.com/life-culture/arts/visual-arts/2022/02/10/artist-lilian-garcia-roig-explores-identity-through-landscapes-in-tampa/
2022: The Painting Center
Join Gallery114@HCC Ybor City Campus for the opening reception of Hyphenated Nature on Thursday, February 17, 2022 from 5:00–8:00 p.m.
Who we are and where we are from—two seemingly simple inquiries—are complex territories for negotiation that shape the core of our personal identity. Florida-based artist Lilian Garcia-Roig (b. 1966, Cuba) uses landscape painting as a vehicle for examining notions like sense of place, belonging, and identity in both perceptually-based plein-air paintings and conceptually-based studio works. In Hyphenated Nature at Gallery114@HCC, Garcia-Roig displays her two approaches to landscape painting side-by-side, reconciling on-site works that capture dense, expressive vegetation with paintings made in her studio using Cuban soil. Seen through the lens of Garcia-Roig’s Cuban-American experience, these distinct bodies of work call to mind the intricate nature of one’s own attachment to time, place, and the lands we inhabit.
A talk by artist Lilian Garcia-Roig will begin at 6:00 p.m. in the Mainstage Theater, YPAB.
Lilian Garcia-Roig- "Homage to Vinales" & Perri Neri- "Shifting Ground"
