Week 7: Liliana Wilson Grez

Liliana Wilson Grez

                      Tiempo (1998)                             

I will be presenting on the Austin based artist Liliana Wilson Grez. She was born in 1953 in Valparaiso, Chile and earned a law degree in her home country. She lived in Chile under the cruel dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet. She immigrated to the United States and studied art at Southwest Texas State University. Her work has been displayed at various museums & galleries in Texas and California. Although not a Chicana artist, she did work with and learned from many Chicanx artists. As an immigrant fleeing from her own country in pursuit of a better life, the stories of Mexican immigrants as the border resonated with her. We therefore see these characters and Mexican icons in some of her artwork.

One of the paintings I will be presenting is her surrealist 1998 piece, Tiempo. Wilson Grez shares that the inspiration for this painting comes from a Pablo Neruda poem. Pablo Neruda, also Chilean, writes that he is walking down the street and he is talking about a woman he used to live with in a house he is looking at. He’s reflecting about how that woman doesn’t live there anymore and neither does he. Essentially he’s pondering about who he was and what life was like then, because it’s not the same anymore. 

The clock above his head points to the passage of time and the floating shoes around him represent every life he has lived. Liliana Wilson Grez shares that this concept is something that always amazes her, how life changes and who you are changes. I think it especially makes sense as a woman who had her life completely changed by the dangers of her country and then learning to navigate life as an immigrant in the United States.