Barbara Mileto, Santa Rosa Regina, 2020.
Barbara J. Mileto "Vanitas: Safe Keeping" Opening night May 8th 4pm-9pm at UNO Saint Claude Gallery Gallery hours: Saturdays and Sundays 12pm-5pm through June 6th
“Vanitas: Safe Keeping” is the culmination of my Master of Fine Arts degree at University of New Orleans. Through my art I explore the formation of cultural and personal identity addressing the importance of heritage, ancestors, and religion in Latin-American culture, while I develop unique deities and a spiritual space, creating my own iconography. My mediums range from photography and printmaking to assemblage and textiles, video, and digital. The pieces are strongly autobiographical, using family members, and frequently lived experience as a subject. As my ancestors did decades ago, I decided to leave my home country. Migrating from Argentina to the United States has had a significant impact in my work. The feelings of loss, rootlessness, distance, and the discovery of new traditions makes me wonder where we belong. It is especially important for me to bring my cultural background to my new home country. In a way it makes me feel closer to home; and at the same time, presents my culture to a different community. This situation translates into a body of work filled with mysticism, where I create ritualistic assemblage pieces, saintly photography, and fiber art that constructs metaphorical connections to South America and my loved ones.
Barbara Mileto, Warrior’s Shelter, 2020. Digital photograph.
From the series Sagrada Femineidad.
Barbara Mileto, At My Fingertips, 2020. Digital photograph.
From the series Sagrada Femineidad.
Barbara Mileto, What It Is, 2019. Toned cyanotype on cardboard, silkscreen printing, beads, lace, crochet, greenery, bones, jewelry, stitches in cotton thread. 60 x 43.5 in.
Hilary Dugas' "Chaos and Control" Opening night May 8th 4pm-9pm at UNO Saint Claude Gallery Gallery hours: Saturdays and Sundays 12pm-5pm through June 6th
In my current practice I deploy a system of mark making to compose my abstract imagery within my prints. My marks are inspired and often made from objects in my surroundings that personally represent my compulsions and spiraling thoughts, which are caused by high levels of anxiety that I often experience.
Through my time in the Master of Fine Arts program at The University of New Orleans, I have explored techniques that include: screen printing, relief printing, drawing, painting, collage, and wood cut-outs as additional layers to my prints. Combining these different mediums and techniques with the knowledge of layering from printmaking has allowed me to create multiple visual systems and endless combinations. I convey repetitive motion, obsessive thoughts, and actions within my prints by overlapping and duplicating the marks. I break down the system and reconstruct it attempting to embrace chaos and concurrently impose control.
Hilary Dugas, Pink and Yellow 2, 2020, screen print
Hilary Dugas, Purple 1, 2021 screen print
Hilary Dugas, Red 2, 2020, screen print