B. 1980 Houston, Texas
BA,, 2002 University of Chicago
MFA, 2008 Massachusetts College of Art and Design, FAWC
I began my career with a background in alternative process photography (1998-2002) but quickly found success in large-scale textile sculptural installations (2006-2016). In 2019 I received a Pollock Krasner Foundation Grant for a series of paintings about love and loss and finding oneself through tender heaviness.
I am in love with layers, textures, and embellishments, in/coherent messiness. This passion is visible in my work whether as sewn pieces, paintings, video projects, installations or performance work. Experimenting with various forms of “mark-making” allows me to stay connected to a diverse way of expressing and integrating subjects and ideas. I work on projects that allow me to feel my way through the process, choosing subjects like flowers on an island, lone willow trees through a studio window, and portraits of my daughters transitioning through their teens. I identify with subjects that are both symbols of devotion and resistance.
My most recent obsession is with a painting at the Portland Museum of Art, Maine, by Thomas Moran titled The Lotus Eaters. There is something intreguing to me about it being from the vantage point of standing on the island of the lotus eaters looking out at Odysseus's ship trying to make it's return journey to Ithica. It ignights so many questions about desire, seduction, intoxication, and the reluctance to accept the mission and responsibility to leave this particular island to return home to another.
S
Wylie Garcia is a queer, mexican-swedish-american artist living and working in Vermont. She/They are the recipient of many artist grants and fellowships; most notably a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, several Vermont Arts Council Creation Grants, a St. Botolph Club Foundation Artist Grant, and a Sustainable Arts Foundation Fellowship to the Vermont Studio Center. Their work can be found in the permanent collections of the Fleming Museum, the University of Vermont Medical Center, and Georgetown College.
In addition to maintaining a professional studio practice, Wylie is also the Director /Curator of The Champlain College Art Gallery in Burlington, Vermont and the Co-Director of ATM Gallery- a new artist-run project space in Shelburne, Vermont.