Idolatrada: Of Spirits and Saints

Johansson Projects presents “Idolatrada: Of Spirits and Saints,” an exhibition that pairs Anna Fidler and Iván Carmona. Through saturated sculptures and energy-infused paintings, Carmona and Fidler invite viewers into a dialogue that merges Puerto Rican heritage with spiritual ascension, creating a tapestry of cultural exploration and artistic innovation.

Iván Carmona constructs organic, sculptural forms as an homage to the objects and natural features of his native Puerto Rico. In contrast to the idea of losing something in translation, Iván Carmona is recalling what he’s gained through the influence of his earliest connections to modern art. Discovering modernist sculptors through import magazines and television, he describes an experience of re-seeing his environment – his world infused with the forms and shapes of mid-century makers. Mixing these memories with his medium of clay, Iván engages in dialogue with history, presenting new perspectives on forms that benefit from his love of the Caribbean. His work channels the vibrancy of Puerto Rico’s culture – its rich mix of Spanish and African influence, the many annual festivals honoring Catholic saints, and the island’s unique indigenous Taino culture.  

Like Iván’s sculpture, Anna Fidler’s energy paintings also commune with the past. Drawing inspiration from early twentieth-century Spiritualists and aesthetes, Anna’s work is inventing machinery for spiritual ascension. Precision is evident in all of Anna’s work, though her current modes diverge in two distinct directions. One includes majestic papercraft environments in which sculptural figurative auras lure us to imagine ourselves inside her fantastical landscapes. Anna is channeling mysticism and an adoration for nature in contemporary constructions that, like Charles Burchfield before her, feel ahead of their time. The other are symmetrical and graphically punchy paintings of spirit elevators providing a lush portal to other realms. Transcendental paintings of gouache on linen take flight but also reference her drawings of seance-inspired and planchette-aided works of symmetry and rich palettes. With visual references to even the art deco dial indicators that sit atop elevators, she is imagining alluring gateways to what’s next. 

Idolatrada: Of Spirits and Saints runs from September 5th to October 26th with an opening reception on Friday, September 6th from 5-8 pm.

For all inquiries, contact Johansson Projects at 510-444-9140 or info@johanssonprojects.com 

Anna Fidler

NYTIMES / SF ARTS MONTHLY, “Gallery Highlights”, March 2019, Christian L Frock 
“In Her Kind” Anna Fidler + Cathy Lu…seem to declare a new world order where feminists call the shots…”

Cascade A&E, “At liberty New Exhibition: Anna Fidler: Vampires & Wolfmen”, May 1, 2018
“The legend of the vampire is of particular interest to me due to the subject’s innate romanticism fused with a form of energy exchange—in this case the transference of life from one being to another,” says artist Fidler.” Link

San Francisco Chronicle / SFGate “Artists, layered work seemed a good match at Johansson” December 23, 2015 Kimberly Chun
“a simpatico relationship that manifested in more ways than one” Link

Broke-Ass Stuart “Art Gallery You Should Know: Johansson Projects” November 5, 2015 Marilyn Jones 
“Inspired by rituals and dream, Fidler captures a boundary between this world and where others could easily be crossed, in her energetic gouache paintings.” Link

Iván Carmona

The Ford Family Foundation, “Iván Carmona: Hallie Ford Fellow in the Visual Arts 2020” 
Iván Carmona’s hands helped his father tend to a family home in Puerto Rico. The coarse finish of cement is coded to his personal history, as are the rich pastels and modernist lines that distinguish Puerto Rican architecture. Link

KBOO, “Joseph Gallivan interviews sculptor Iván Carmona” February 5, 2019
In this new body of work I’ve abstracted the landscape of my homeland, Puerto Rico. The forms and colors are based on my memories, is a physical tactile of my experiences. Each piece is a fragment of my experience as a child in a landscape, rich with intense color shapes and textures. Link

ARTIST-AT-LARGE, “Iván Carmona and Liz Robb at PDX Contemporary” January 21, 2019
When paired and observed in groups, these vidid gestures resemble the topography of his native land, combining together the sky, flora, fauna and earth, to reimagine the landscape. Link

Anna Fidler (b. 1973, Traverse City, Michigan) lives in Corvallis, Oregon where she teaches studio art at Oregon State University. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in painting from Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, in 1995 and a Master of Fine Arts degree in studio art from Portland State University in 2005. Fidler has had solo exhibitions at The Boise Art Museum, APEX at The Portland Art Museum, Johansson Projects in Oakland, Wieden & Kennedy, Portland, Oregon, Disjecta, Portland, Oregon, and has been widely exhibited at such venues as The Everhart Museum of Natural History, Science, and Art, The University of Southern California, The Tacoma Art Museum and The Sun Valley Center for the Arts. Her exhibitions have been reviewed in publications such as Art in America, The Washington Post, The Oregonian and The San Francisco Chronicle. Grants and awards include an Oregon Arts Commission Individual Artist Fellowship, a Regional Arts and Culture Council Project Grant, and residencies at Painting’s Edge in Idyllwild, California and The Sun Valley Center for the Arts. Her work is held in the collections of The Portland Art Museum, The Boise Art Museum, Portland Portable Works Collection and Seattle Portable Works Collection. Fidler is represented by Charles A. Hartman Fine Art in Portland and Johansson Projects in Oakland.

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Iván Carmona (b. 1973, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American artist raised in Puerto Rico. He received his BFA from the Oregon College of Art and Craft and lives in Portland, Oregon. Recalling representations of Spanish colonial architecture, dense colorful vegetation as well as complex textures and patterns, Iván draws upon a strong visual vocabulary in his work. Through the use of tropical landscape and traditional cultural idiosyncrasy, one can see how deeply Iván identifies with the structure and beauty of his home. Employing imagery, form and texture, Iván’s exploration of the relationship between human emotions, culture, identity, and geographic connections enables him to capture the complexity, personality and history of his art. Carmona has received the Hallie Ford Foundation Fellowship from The Ford Family Foundation, the Student Scholarship Award for Outstanding Academic and Artistic Achievement, the Dean’s Scholarship, the Commitment to Craft Scholarship and the Huntley-Tidwell Scholarship. Selected collections include Boise Art Museum, Cedar Hall Seattle, Crocker Art Museum, Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation, King County Public Art Collection, Meta Open Arts, Museum of Glass, Museum of Contemporary Art in Puerto Rico, Portland Art Museum, Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, The Vanport Building, Port of Seattle and Regional Arts & Culture Council Portable Art Collection.

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Anna Fidler

I build bodies from layers of glued together paper. These silhouettes—represent the energy of a person—the heat, emotions, experience of their lives. I describe this through the dimensional, topographic contours of their bodies. For me, cutting and gluing paper represents a slow, meditative ritual-like process in my studio. This work is research-based, often using historical photographs of individuals such as Dada artist and poet, Elsa von Freytag Loringhoven or Swiss artist, designer, and dancer, Sophie Taeuber-Arp. Aligned with the Spiritualists of the early twentieth century, I feel these paintings serve as a gateway to another place or time.

I began making environments for spirits forests, houses, sanctuaries—three years ago. More recently, I have become interested in how spirits get from one place to another. An elevator is a vessel, a portal, a box with doors, a method of going up and down. It is a simple way to leave one place and get to another. How do birds and reptiles ascend to the spirit world when their wings fail and they can no longer glide through grasses? Moths drawn to flames, candles, porch lights—tempt fate flying closer and closer—yet where do they go from there? Streamlined art deco contours, symmetry and architectural design influence my elevator paintings as much as the bigger questions pertaining to the ephemeral nature of life. They are gateways to what comes next.

In 2023, I began working on linen canvases. Sized linen has a natural look that preserves the texture of my matte gouache paint and I enjoy the drum-like feel of the canvas when stretched tightly. I find painting on linen to be a slower process than paper—the medium I have used for decades—and I appreciate the texture of the fabric and the way gouache becomes a little transparent even when applied thickly. I make small dilute gouache studies on computer paper. These studies are loose interpretations for compositions around such subjects as the death of an electrical eel, smoke and ghosts hovering over an art deco ashtray, and stained glass cobwebs in the late morning. I am an intuitive painter, and my ideas often change as I go.

Iván Carmona

The vessel is a primary sculptural form and making them has always been a deep pleasure for me. I hold them as a measure of my accomplishment in expressing my artistic vocabulary and subject matter. Over time, I’ve come to regard the vase as an Idol.

In 1997, in my late 20’s, I took my first ceramics class at the Escuela de Artes Plásticas in Old San Juan, PR. There I learned the basic techniques of ceramic construction: pinch pot, slab and coil building. The ubiquity of the vessel in cultures east, west, north and south captured my attention.

Although these objects are primarily functional, the makers imbue them with a beauty that transcends their utility. Their shapes and surfaces hold narrative and symbolic meaning.

In this new body of work I conflate the Greek vase forms of Lekythos and Amphora with my own sense of color, form, and texture to create a new narrative, my personal story.