Wild Kin

Uprise Art is pleased to present Wild Kin, an exhibition featuring new paintings by Arantxa Solis, Diana Delgado, and Erin Lynn Welsh. Using paint as a medium to translate experiential and environmental phenomena into vivid, immersive compositions, these artists explore subjects ranging from the personal and familial to the elemental and ecological, examining the ways we inhabit and respond to both inner and outer landscapes.

Hidden within Delgado's expressive abstract paintings are references to her children's stuffed animals, the soft curves of their bodies echoing the shape of a hug and representing the safety and healing in being held. Her paintings are intimate excavations of childhood, an opportunity to reflect on that finite time of simplicity and innocence in her own life, while also channeling that of her children. Through this dialogue between past and present, self and family, Delgado captures the enduring intimacy of care and attachment, embedded within her intuitive and dynamic brushwork.

Whether capturing the intimacy of memory or the sublime in nature, the paintings in 'Wild Kin' engage viewers with the fragile and enduring physical and emotional landscapes we inhabit.

Welsh’s impastoed surfaces create a visceral impression of California’s diverse terrain through her energetic use of color and form. By depicting both native and introduced plant species, her work engages with the legacy of colonialism and the ways humans have shaped the landscape. Many of her paintings reflect on the devastation of increasingly frequent and intense wildfires, particularly in her second home of Los Angeles, where non-native vegetation often amplifies their spread. At the same time, her work celebrates nature’s resilience such as the vibrant “super blooms” that emerge after these disasters, testifying to nature’s enduring capacity to regenerate and thrive.

Painted entirely by hand without the use of an airbrush, Solis’ ethereal color field paintings invite viewers to lose themselves in their vaporous blending, while bursts of staccato paint act as a visual echo of sound. Solis’ work is interested in exploring natural and atmospheric phenomena, using oil paint not only to create smooth gradients but also to explore contrast, planar relationships, and terrestrial sensations. Colors and brushstrokes evoke the rhythms and frequencies of the landscape and channel elemental forces of earth, fire, air, and water.

Whether capturing the intimacy of memory or the sublime in nature, the paintings in Wild Kin engage viewers with the fragile and enduring physical and emotional landscapes we inhabit.

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