Artist Spotlight: Emilia Faro

Emilia Faro, Carnival Party, 2010. Watercolor on paper.
Image courtesy of the Progressive Corporation

Closing this Sunday, May 19 is A Family Affair. This is a rare chance for the general public to experience outstanding selections of art from the Progressive Corporations contemporary art collection. 

Emilia Fargo, The Red Sledge, 2010. Watercolor on paper.
Image courtesy of the Progressive Corporation.

Emilia Faro is an artist featured in the exhibition, and is primarily a watercolor painter, working in a style that exploits the medium to the highest degree. Using a watercolor technique of “wet-into-wet”, Faro achieves a watery and dreamlike appearance for her cast of characters—many of whom are lifted from her own personal narrative. Oftentimes, she pulls imagery from old photo albums and scrapbooks, recasting the scenes in the hazy blur where all memories ultimately reside. Faro’s ethereal images are ghostlike portents from the past, yet brought to the present with lifelike exactitude and a somewhat exposed interior—as the very soul of the portrait lives on, yet only in the very presence of the painting itself. 

Emilia Faro, Snow, 2010. Watercolor on paper.
Image courtesy of the Progressive Corporation.

In an interview, the artist discusses the collapsing of her medium with the emotional content of her subject matter. She states, “I use watercolor on paper because it can lighten up a face till the point of reaching the soul. It’s a technique that reflects my impulsive temperament as it requires a speed of execution that allows me to catch a thought in the shortest possible time. Watercolor painting is like a flower, oil painting is like a fruit: the first must be caught before they wither; the second needs time to mature.”

Emilia Faro, My Sixth Birthday, 2010. Watercolor on paper.
Image courtesy of the Progressive Corporation.

A Family Affair
Selections from the Progressive Art Collection 
Closing May 19, 2013 | FAC galleries are open Tuesday-Sunday, 10a-5p