SYDNEY-BASED ARTIST ANGIE GOTO APPROACHES HER PRACTICE WITH THREEFOLD PURPOSE: TO MAKE SENSE OF THE WORLD AROUND HER, TO EMBRACE HUMAN DIFFERENCE, AND TO COMMUNICATE THE UNIVERSALITY OF THE HUMAN CONDITION. EMILY CONES-BROWN WRITES.
ANGIE GOTO’S APPROACH to artmaking is confident and unapologetic. Neo-expressionist in style, her works are informed by a unique perspective of the world around her. The result is unique, bold and abstract figurative work.
“I have always loved art as I am deaf, and drawing is second nature to me. It has always been a great way for me to express and interpret my surroundings,” explains Angie. “I embrace the differences I see in the human spirit and constantly strive to bring awareness to our similarities rather than our differences. Most of my work is based on observing people and their body language.”
In addition to working full-time from her warehouse studio – where art sits intermingled among the plants – Angie is a part-time art educator at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney. The studio is where Angie goes to block out the world, working in total silence “to focus thoughts and imagination on the job at hand”. The works she creates here have led to representation at Anala Art Advisory, a long-standing artistic services provider that represents artists from all over the country.
Rendered in materials as diverse as acrylic, charcoal, oil stick and aerosol spray, Angie’s naïve female figures are executed with disregard for conventions of beauty or sexuality. Multiple eyes, noses and mouths playfully corrupt the human form, forcing the viewer to confront their accepted sense of perspective and reality.
There is contrast in the mark-making of the work’s surface: layered and sanded areas, pattern and selected blocks of opaque colour are juxtaposed against raw, hand-drawn figures and sharp lines. “The first layer of a piece is made up of intuitive random expressions that eventually morph into more structured work,” Angie explains.
Currently working towards two solo exhibitions in Queensland and New South Wales, Angie’s artmaking mission is simple: “[I want to achieve] freedom of expression, fulfilment, and a way of life.”