New York artist Cristina Toro’s massive, and wonderfully busy new series S”trike a Match to Hear My Sound” can now be found on display at LaCa Projects.
LaCa was founded in 2013 and dedicated its platform to promote Latin American Art with emphasis on the culture within the United States. Since opening, LaCa has featured a number regional artists, including an earlier exhibition by Toro.
Having grown up in Puerto Rico before moving to the States at a young age, Christina Toro says much of her inspiration stems from her childhood. She’s been showing her work since she was 23, and she and her work found their way to LaCa through some of her familial connections in Carolina. Toro, whose interest in plant life is reflected in most of her body of work, now resides in upstate New York with her husband. There, she continues to find inspiration in the natural world around her—she recalls a furious summer storm (and it’s accompanying lightning) in particular.
Her largest piece featured, Without Exception Everything is Reflected in this Mirror, took her a year to complete, and serves as the foundational work for the entire series.
“There is a focal point of these figures and these repeated faces and the reflection looking back,” Toro says of this gargantuan acrylic painting. “This painting holds the key to understanding the other pieces in the show. This whole show is two years worth of work and the content of the other work sounds from this piece: I’ve always had a central female figure in all of my work. For the first time, I’m moving closer to this figure being me.
She describes her art as “looking deeply into someone’s personal space: You can relate to it however you want.” She’s always made her art for herself, as something she might display in her own home. The innate movement in all of her pieces is especially showcased in “Strike a Match to Hear My Sound,” as the exhibition shares Toro’s latest obsession with energy and luminosity.
The exhibition will grace LaCa’s walls until April 28th. Toro, for her part, is currently hard at work on her first book project, which is expected to release this year.
For a bit more info, visit lacaprojects.com