Storm Ascher: What is it like to be an MFA candidate at Columbia?
Raelis Vasquez: It is a great privilege yet overwhelming. The program has pushed and challenged me tremendously and so I feel like it has helped my development as an artist. It is also great to be among a great community of artists.
Storm Ascher: What were you focusing on at school before the lockdown? Is the curriculum translating to online?
Raelis Vasquez: I was mainly focused on a large painting for the 1st year show that was supposed to be in March. Also, I had started a series in my studio that was based on old family photos. I have been able to continue that series in my home studio here in NJ. The curriculum does not translate online at all. A large part of the program is having critiques from individual faculty, outside artists, critics, and our own cohort. In order to get a true critique, it’s important for the viewer to be in the presence of the work. Since we have had to revert to online options, it has tremendously devalued the feedback and conversations with others. We also had other parts of the program that we don’t have access to.
Storm Ascher: What are you studying outside of studio practice?
Raelis Vasquez: At the moment, I was studying printmaking silkscreen and creative writing. I am always studying psychology and history for my practice. They are subjects that I have been studying on my work for over a decade.
Storm Ascher: Though you are known as a figurative painter, your attention to still life within the portrait is also highly worked and developed, what are the recurring objects within immigrant life in the U.S. that you render?
Raelis Vasquez: The objects that I represent usually change. Some of the recurring secondary signifiers are plants and trees, tables, and the light. The secondary signifiers allow me to help the painting communicate what I am seeing. Oftentimes, my main focus is connecting the figure to the space which they are in. The objects that come into the painting are to help the overall narrative of the painting. As an immigrant, I am often looking for ways to subtly state that the person I am representing belongs to multiple places at once.
Storm Ascher: Can you expand on your painting, Spaces Like This ? It is unique in style in terms of brushstrokes and materials compared to the other works I’ve seen of yours, breaking down the background and playing with abstraction.. is this something you are incorporating into more paintings in the future?
Raelis Vasquez: That painting took a lot longer than my other works to complete. I worked on it on and off for a few months. I wanted to push my medium usage in the painting and have a childlike approach to creating the space. I wanted to see what that did to the relationship of the figure to the space that they are in. I have used these different ways of making in many of the paintings that came after that one in a more controlled way.
Storm Ascher: How do your earlier paintings made back in Chicago exist within your larger narrative of storytelling?
Raelis Vasquez: The paintings that I made back in Chicago are not too different in terms of what I am fighting for and who I am depicting. I have become a lot more specific and intentional about what I am including in the work. I am also constantly evolving as an artist and a painter. As I continue to research aspects of my family, my community, and the history of the new world, my work shifts. I am also always pushing myself as a painter by improving my technique and exploring different ways of making an image.
Storm Ascher: How do you compare your experiences in Chicago to New York? As an artist? As an immigrant?
Raelis Vasquez: Chicago and New York are very different for me. I love Chicago to the point that I am thinking about moving back in the future. One of the things that was helpful about me leaving NJ to go to Chicago is that it took me out of my context. It was the first time that I started to think about story and narrative because I was outside of it. There is also the aspect that there are not that many people that I encountered from Dominican Republic in Chicago where in NJ and NYC, you can’t go too far without encountering one of us. Also, SAIC is a very different school than Columbia University. One is an art school and the other is a university which includes all subjects, which means that the diversity of the student body and the politics change drastically. I consider both Chicago and NY to be parts of me. They both feel like home.
Storm Ascher: What does “nomad” mean to you?
Raelis Vasquez: A nomad to me is someone who keeps moving from place to place and doesn’t have a fixed home. With my work, it is more about the aspect of belonging to multiple places at once. Immigrants sacrifice tremendously to leave their homes but they carry home with them, whether they want to or not.