Honys Torres

THE ICONOLOGICAL CONSTRUCTIONS OF HONYS TORRES

 

Iconic imagery is the primary source in the research and visual production of the Venezuelan artist Honys Torres (Caracas, 1969), who has developed an extensive and fruitful body or work of an eclectic nature. Excelling as a painter, photographer, sculptor, and draftsman, Torres aesthetic approach is rooted in critical reflection whereby themes revolving around power, stereotypes, anarchy and the canons of beauty in contemporary society are questioned against a canvas of deeply-held assumptions.

 

Torres began university studies in computer science at the Nueva Esparta University Institute but would eventually graduate in Law from Central University of Venezuela and thereafter completing postgraduate studies in Organizational Development at the Andrés Bello Catholic University. 

 

It was as a university student that Torres became interested in artistic practices. Experimenting with various techniques and mediums such as painting, watercolor and drawing, her artistic endeavour became a channel through which she would address social, political, and equity issues she was exposed to through her law studies. In 2002 Torres relocated to Germany  exposing her and deeply influencing her evolving artistic sensibilities to the German aesthetic and cultural movement. 

 

Returning to Venezuela in 2006, she resides in Puerto Piritu, a coastal city of the north eastern Venezulean State of Anzoátegui. It was during this period that color  became the essential element of Torre’s artistic production framed within a Neo Pop aesthetic. 

 

Torres appropriates the iconography of pop culture such as comics, posters and animation decoding their meaning and re-articulates in the realms of the visual and symbolic. Her work was first exhibited in 2008 alongside prestigious Venezuelan artists and would soon be recognized for her contribution to Venezuelan art. Torres’s artistic approach is methodical based on extensive research both cultural and semantic thus organizing her work as collections rather than an individual opus.

 

Torres' artistic output has undoubtedly grown over time. In 2018 she settled in Switzerland and discovered new iconographies that aroused her interest. Developing an aesthetic of the dialectical  between the various monuments and fictional characters and translating this dialectic into visual stories that invite reflection. These carry special and  political weight that forces us to discover, analyze and understand our universe from the homogenic multicultural worldview of first world society.

 

Her work is represented in public and private art institutions in Venezuela, as well as in private collections in different parts of the world. She currently lives and works in Zurich where she has participated in different exhibitions.

 

Linda Phillips 

Art Curator