Marisa DeLuca (She/Her) is a remodernist artist working in painting, drawing, and photography. Her practice examines intersections between time, memory, impermanence, and critical theory. Marisa comes from a background of community engagement through nonprofit service in the arts sector. She is founder and President of the nonprofit Artists in Solidarity, an artist collective that raises funds for migrant families through charity art auctions. Marisa is a San Diego native based in Oceanside, California and received her BA in Visual Arts (Studio) from UC San Diego in 2021. She is currently pursuing her MFA at San Diego State University's School of Art + Design.
Artist Statement
Meditating on my home, Oceanside, California, I explore notions of impermanence in physical spaces, making connections between reality, illusion, and intuition. This body of work explores memory, temporality, and the powerlessness one experiences navigating endangered urban spaces that are subject to the homogenizing forces of cultural liquidation.
I am most interested in honoring the memory of the everyday in my paintings. Elevating the the mystery of the mundane as something worthy of meditation has become a cornerstone in my work. I place myself beyond the contemporary and into a new era of representing life as it is. Examination of the impermanence of life, the nonlinear quality of time, and the humanistic quality of the trace in these spaces are functions of my paintings and drawings.
My work is in some way an attempt to take power back and preserve that which is being lost. As these spaces disappear, I feel an urgency to document them before they are forgotten. Using original photographs as an initial means to capture these disappearing moments, my work pushes against photography to create a deeper conversation between existence and nonexistence, the real and the simulacra. This work also pits reality and memory against each other, asking which is true.
Using a nonverbal visual language, my intuition guides my artistic decisions. The viewer’s intuition is engaged as they try to untangle my work and find their own connections. The work becomes a conduit for sharing the human experience. The passage of time, the preciousness of passing moments, and the bittersweet melancholia of loss are important concepts for my work, which has become a careful and thoughtful act of labor and care.
Artist Statement
Meditating on my home, Oceanside, California, I explore notions of impermanence in physical spaces, making connections between reality, illusion, and intuition. This body of work explores memory, temporality, and the powerlessness one experiences navigating endangered urban spaces that are subject to the homogenizing forces of cultural liquidation.
I am most interested in honoring the memory of the everyday in my paintings. Elevating the the mystery of the mundane as something worthy of meditation has become a cornerstone in my work. I place myself beyond the contemporary and into a new era of representing life as it is. Examination of the impermanence of life, the nonlinear quality of time, and the humanistic quality of the trace in these spaces are functions of my paintings and drawings.
My work is in some way an attempt to take power back and preserve that which is being lost. As these spaces disappear, I feel an urgency to document them before they are forgotten. Using original photographs as an initial means to capture these disappearing moments, my work pushes against photography to create a deeper conversation between existence and nonexistence, the real and the simulacra. This work also pits reality and memory against each other, asking which is true.
Using a nonverbal visual language, my intuition guides my artistic decisions. The viewer’s intuition is engaged as they try to untangle my work and find their own connections. The work becomes a conduit for sharing the human experience. The passage of time, the preciousness of passing moments, and the bittersweet melancholia of loss are important concepts for my work, which has become a careful and thoughtful act of labor and care.