In the studio: Luz Carabaño
Venezuela-born, LA-based artist Luz Carabaño opens up her studio doors. Tracing back works that left an impression early on in her life, Carabaño shares how her paintings and exhibitions take shape today. With her solo show antesis currently on view in our gallery, she reflects on how each work is an intuitive response to her daily life and why she wanted to create a sun that you could actually look at.
SSM: Where do you feel most at home?
LC: I feel most at home in my studio, when taking a walk, looking, soaking in the world around me, at the beach, in a library, and among loved ones.
SSM: Do you remember the first work of art that left an impression on you?
LC: I don’t have a singular memory of a work making an impression, but I recall many of the works that I grew up with as a child.
One that had a big presence in my home was a large painting of Carlos Galindo that took up much of the wall outside our kitchen. It was filled with colorful painted leaves, monkeys, spiders, and tropical imagery against a black background and peaking blue sky. My family had several of his works, including one of three Diablos de Yare in my maternal grandparents’ home.
I was also struck by the collection of photographs found salon style at the top of the spiral staircase in my paternal grandparents’ home. They were individual photographs, one of each of their children and grandchildren. The black and white photos held up well with age, while the older color photos faded. There were so many variations according to when they were taken and how they were developed or printed.
SSM: What museum in Los Angeles do you keep coming back to?
LC: I love visiting The Huntington. It has beautiful gardens, manuscripts, and art. I also periodically visit LACMA, MoCA, and the Hammer - they’re all great LA institutions.
SSM: Does every day in the studio start the same?
LC: Most days I take a moment to settle in, put on a podcast or music, and then get to the making. Sometimes my studio time consists of preparing canvases, and other times I’m just painting. I leave bookmaking and drawing for home.
Luz Carabaño, Studio, Los Angeles, 📸 Paul Salveson
SSM: What are the 5 most essential items in your studio?
LC: Apart from the materials I use, I’d say my couch, books, speaker, paint tube extruder, and windows.
SSM: The works in antesis allude to a lifecycle and individual moments of transformation, at their core the opening of a flower bud. When did this body of work begin and how did it come together?
LC: This set of works began last fall and ran through the spring. I work very intuitively, so in many ways they are an accumulation of what I was responding to and interested in painting during this period of time. Although most of the paintings allude to nature, some do so in indirect ways. The sources range from a found image of a paper flower held up by mimes, shadows I came across, fallen twigs, an ancient vase, to the sun itself, and an orchid painted from observation.
Luz Carabaño antesis, 2023, Learn more →
SSM: Do you have a favourite flower?
LC: My favorite flower is the passiflora that comes from passionfruit vines. They are incredibly beautiful, alien-like forms, and I love the fruit too!
SSM: The painting sol stands out almost as an anomaly and it somehow anchors the rest of the exhibition: How did the concept to paint the sun come about?
LC: sol came about very spontaneously. I painted it in April of this year after the partial solar eclipse in Los Angeles. I came to the studio one day and wanted to create a soft circular form, a sun you could actually look at.
Luz Carabaño sol, 2024, Learn more →
SSM: What are you excited about in 2025?
LC: I’m excited to see what unfolds in the studio. It’s always such a surprise and yet a reflection of where I’ve been, both physically and imaginatively.
SSM: Is there an artwork from art history that best describes your personality?
LC: Perhaps a Vija Celmins' web or a Morandi still life. Their works are full of touch and presence, they are dense, light, curious, orderly - certainly some qualities I identify with.
