Jana Marie Cariddi is a visual artist based in Berlin who works in the mediums of painting, drawing and installation. Jana's work is informed by her own personal narratives and memories where she frequently revisits her child-hood and contrives imagery that is equally haunting and engaging—lonely yet vibrant.
"I create visual memoirs revealing imaginary worlds that exist to humorize, heal and counterbalance the mundane."
"In my paintings and drawings, you can find other worldly figures sporting butterfly wings, barefoot crying bathtub creatures, pom-poms and technicolor egg motifs. You can find vacant domestic scenes, sleeping poodles, shape-based jungle gyms and fun-house rooms filled with patterns, pipes, and quirks. These scenes feel dynamic yet sleepy and occasionally dangerous. Rainbows and mysterious windows emerge and exist in harmony with threatening spikes, scissors, raindrops and hearts either broken or too full to beat without bursting. These inner worlds and characters are hypnotic, metaphoric and vulnerable; like a visual riddle of my psyche."
"Color is a compulsory element within my work. Vibrant and highly saturated colors reference childhood and adolescent memorabilia. I harness my imagined narratives through drawing, actively echoing the structure of a ‘coloring book.’ My sketchbook serves as a womb for my ideas, these ideas are then conceived into paintings. My paintings vary in scale, sometimes having sides chunky enough for them to stand on their own as objects. The idea of painting as an object helps engage space in an encompassing and multi-dimensional way, serving to physically manifest my ‘gloom-topias.’ Playing with notions of archetypal femininity, I devise an intersection where the rose- colored glasses of girl-hood and the sharp realities of woman-hood meet. With commemoration of my childhood, I create utopias where I invite humor and decorative elements to elevate modern ideas of identifying as a woman. It is crucial that my practice glorifies permission to be frivolous, and personal in art."
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