Tania LaCaria
Tania LaCaria (Canada b. 1985) is an Italian-Canadian artist. She holds a BA in Fine Arts from York University (2006) and a CIDA advanced diploma in Interior Design from Sheridan College (2009). LaCaria launched her residential interior design consulting firm in 2005 and has since traveled the world extensively, gathering inspiration from various cultures and countries where she’s lived, namely in Latin America and South East Asia. Her travels have always influenced her work in art and design and continue to be an important source of inspiration for her. She returned to Canada and settled in Hamilton in 2016, where she currently lives and works.
ARTIST’S STATEMENT
LaCaria’s work explores paradox - the idea that two opposing realities can exist at the same time - with a focus on themes based on gender, sexuality, social structure/class systems, body politics and relationships, often presented in an Abstract Expressionist aesthetic. LaCaria’s mission in life is to form meaningful connections with others, and she does this through her art.
As a conceptual artist, LaCaria thrives in a state of curiosity, eager to ask questions of herself and the world around her during her creative process while admitting she doesn't have the answers. Her background in Interior Design blends seamlessly with her love for visual arts as LaCaria spent the majority of her professional life as a solutionist for her clients. Now, as a full-time professional artist, LaCaria is eager to share her curiosity with others by producing thought-provoking work that prompts viewers to ask questions about themselves and their life experiences.
In order to ensure viewers make an emotional connection to her visual works, LaCaria exhibits and presents her work alongside her poetry, her preferred method of story-telling, to provide additional context to the motivation behind her creative decisions. Her creative process has been described as ‘performative’ with an emphasis on the deep introspection, vulnerability and social observations she is making that are often juxtaposed by the playful, “fun” and seemingly light-hearted way her often brightly colored work presents to viewers.
Tania LaCaria (Canada b. 1985) is an Italian-Canadian artist. She holds a BA in Fine Arts from York University (2006) and a CIDA advanced diploma in Interior Design from Sheridan College (2009). LaCaria launched her residential interior design consulting firm in 2005 and has since traveled the world extensively, gathering inspiration from various cultures and countries where she’s lived, namely in Latin America and South East Asia. Her travels have always influenced her work in art and design and continue to be an important source of inspiration for her. She returned to Canada and settled in Hamilton in 2016, where she currently lives and works.
ARTIST’S STATEMENT
LaCaria’s work explores paradox - the idea that two opposing realities can exist at the same time - with a focus on themes based on gender, sexuality, social structure/class systems, body politics and relationships, often presented in an Abstract Expressionist aesthetic. LaCaria’s mission in life is to form meaningful connections with others, and she does this through her art.
As a conceptual artist, LaCaria thrives in a state of curiosity, eager to ask questions of herself and the world around her during her creative process while admitting she doesn't have the answers. Her background in Interior Design blends seamlessly with her love for visual arts as LaCaria spent the majority of her professional life as a solutionist for her clients. Now, as a full-time professional artist, LaCaria is eager to share her curiosity with others by producing thought-provoking work that prompts viewers to ask questions about themselves and their life experiences.
In order to ensure viewers make an emotional connection to her visual works, LaCaria exhibits and presents her work alongside her poetry, her preferred method of story-telling, to provide additional context to the motivation behind her creative decisions. Her creative process has been described as ‘performative’ with an emphasis on the deep introspection, vulnerability and social observations she is making that are often juxtaposed by the playful, “fun” and seemingly light-hearted way her often brightly colored work presents to viewers.
$2,420.00
Ink, acrylic, natural-dyed linen, palo santo on raw canvas.
44x44"
Inspired by Allie Michelle’s original poem, A Poem for My Ancestors, this piece focuses on the sentiment behind the following lines: “I felt generations of women who were the invisible hands weaving their husbands dreams/ silently praying that one day they might get to live on their own.”
Using the imagery of basket-weaving that has shown up in the artist’s previous collection, Hold, the idea of women contributing to the successful futures of their husbands and partners appears to be another aspect of invisible “woman’s work” as the art of basket-weaving and other craft-based work historically falls to women, along with managing the family's schedule and maintaining the household. Women are known for having to walk a careful line between maintaining a home/work life balance that male counterparts don’t often have to experience.
The artist incorporated a basket weave pattern of 100% linen strips that were dyed in avocado skins in reference to the “woman’s work” of craft, home-making and cooking.
Both subtle and obvious messages taken from Allie Michelle’s poem are scrawled across these linen strips ("generations of women who were the invisible hands, weaving their husbands dreams, silently praying that one day they might get to live on their own") to reference the often quiet, desperate whispers and cries uttered by our women ancestors to one another.
These woven ribbons begin to loosen, ripple and fall apart as they culminate at the center of the canvas in reference to the new generation of independent women who no longer find themselves in the same positions of having to support their partners (either because they’re unwed and single, or because they find themselves in supportive and balanced partnership) and instead, are now able to weave the patterns of their own dreams.
Despite the empowering message behind Allie Michelle’s words, there’s an undertone of sadness in the way she acknowledges her current state of independence is entirely owed to the generations of women who came before her who sacrificed their own dreams for the benefit of their families. Imagery of candles with flames that appear to have been snuffed out with heavy smoke (created with palo santo) pay homage to the women who sacrificed so much.
Splashes of blue suggest the turmoil (and eventual triumph) our women ancestors endured while trying to hold onto themselves while also being in service to their families. The new generation of women Allie Michelle references have the privilege and opportunity to live life on their own terms, with or without a family, because now they have a choice.
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The VOICES (That’s What She Said) collection is a celebration of the way women have used their words and voices to empower themselves and others.
$1,250.00
Acrylic on birch wood board.
36x24"
Inspired by the poem Black Girl Fly by professor, playwright and author, Funmilola Fagbamila, this text-heavy piece is intended to resemble a word cloud, except every single word spoken by the poet and author is of equal importance, and after listening to this poem for the first time, the artist found every word hung in the air with intense poignancy.
The artist wanted to communicate this feeling to the viewer by capturing the entirety of this inspirational message intended to uplift young black girls in a way that communicates the rhythm and musicality in which Funmilola Fagbamila narrates it through a balance of varying words, typefaces and colours that work together in harmony.
The natural finish of the wood board is incorporated into this piece in an attempt to suggest that the message behind this poetry makes sense in its purest and natural form - why wouldn’t a young black girl feel capable of achieving the levels of success the author speaks about when it seems like such an obvious opportunity, and yet, the lack of equality and opportunities across marginalized and minority groups creates an additional barrier for BIPOC girls and women to overcome. It should be easy, equality should come as naturally as the words that flow from Funmilola Fagbamila's lips and land on the surface of this piece naturally and easily.
This piece serves as a reminder to all girls, especially young black girls, that she can, and she will, especially under the guidance and influence of powerful women like Funmilola Fagbamila reminding us all what we’re capable of.
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The VOICES (That’s What She Said) collection is a celebration of the way women have used their words and voices to empower themselves and others.
$1,900.00
Spray paint on raw canvas.
36x40"
Inspired by the voice of Her Excellency Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and her words from the TedWomen’s stage in 2019 about how women will lead us to freedom, justice and peace, this piece makes a bold, unapologetic statement about how representation of women in professional roles is important.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was the first woman president of an African nation (Liberia) and continues to be a change-maker in her community - the ripple effect of her advocating for women to be included in positions of power has been celebrated world-wide.
This piece is the only one in the VOICES collection that highlights a single quote from an entire monologue, “Once the glass ceiling has been broken, it can never be put back together”, and has been communicated in large, bold, stencils on canvas in which letters from words spill from one line onto the next to encourage this sentence to be read aloud without pause.
The artist includes stencil imperfections and crooked edges as a reminder that moving forward and making changes is a clumsy and imperfect process that calls for transparency and resilience. Some letters appear upside down, crooked, overlapping with others…but despite these imperfections, the message is still received loud and clear.
The following quote from her speech struck the artists as particularly poignant: “I had my fair shares of criticism and toxicity. Nobody is perfect. But there's nothing more predictable than a strong woman who wants to change things, who's brave to speak out, who's bold in action…” Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s voice has reminded us all that with courage, persistence, and the dismissal of the ego, real change is possible.
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The VOICES (That’s What She Said) collection is a celebration of the way women have used their words and voices to empower themselves and others.
$599.00
Acrylic, ink, spray paint, pencil on birch wood board.
16x20"
Inspired by the powerful words and live performance of Katie Makkai’s poem, Pretty, the artist created two pieces on wood panel drawing parallels between the medium’s solid exterior and the “hard truth” the author shares about women and physical appearances.
For this piece, Katie Makkai's entire poem was transcribed by hand in the artist’s penmanship as a way referencing how the same sentiments Makkai shares could easily have been her own thoughts one might find in the artist's journal. Makkai uses her voice in a compelling, theatrical way to address how at a young age she learned that the most important thing about herself was her appearance, and how her mother’s on-going efforts to doctor her appearance to make her more conventionally attractive left Katie wondering what her “real” face would have looked like.
The artist references the author’s aspirations for “physical perfection” by scribbling, re-writing, painting, crossing-out, hiding, revealing, highlighting and re-writing words from her poem to symbolize that despite the quest for perfection, a mess was made. There is a painful vulnerability in Makkai’s compelling delivery in which she admits that despite her mother having paid for physical adjustments to her daughter’s nose, teeth and overall appearance, an entanglement of emotions and overall sense of being "not-enough" remains; there's a deep feeling of being unwell despite having a flawless physical appearance.
The focal point of this piece remains the slightly obscured yet legible word “face” as the artist attempts to highlight that for many women, their most prioritized characteristic is the face (and their appearance in general) but there is little consideration given to the “messy” emotional impact that maintaining a perfect appearance that is intended to please others has on a woman’s psyche.
_____________________
The VOICES (That’s What She Said) collection is a celebration of the way women have used their words and voices to empower themselves and others.
$599.00
Acrylic, ink, spray paint, pencil on wood board.
16x20"
Inspired by the powerful words and live performance of Katie Makkai’s poem, Pretty, the artist created two pieces on wood panel drawing parallels between the medium’s solid exterior and the “hard truth” the author shares about women and physical appearances.
For this piece, Katie Makkai's entire poem was transcribed by hand in the artist’s penmanship as a way referencing how the same sentiments Makkai shares could easily have been her own thoughts one might find in the artist's journal. Makkai uses her voice in a compelling, theatrical way to address how at a young age she learned that the most important thing about herself was her appearance, and how her mother’s on-going efforts to doctor her appearance to make her more conventionally attractive left Katie wondering what her “real” face would have looked like.
The artist references the author’s aspirations for “physical perfection” by scribbling, re-writing, painting, crossing-out, hiding, revealing, highlighting and re-writing words from her poem to symbolize that despite the quest for perfection, a mess was made. There is a painful vulnerability in Makkai’s compelling delivery in which she admits that despite her mother having paid for physical adjustments to her daughter’s nose, teeth and overall appearance, an entanglement of emotions and overall sense of being "not-enough" remains; there's a deep feeling of being unwell despite having a flawless physical appearance.
The focal point of this piece remains the slightly obscured yet legible word “face” as the artist attempts to highlight that for many women, their most prioritized characteristic is the face (and their appearance in general) but there is little consideration given to the “messy” emotional impact that maintaining a perfect appearance that is intended to please others has on a woman’s psyche.
__________
The VOICES (That’s What She Said) collection is a celebration of the way women have used their words and voices to empower themselves and others.
$1,900.00
Spray paint, ink, acrylic on raw canvas.
36x40"
Inspired by the voice and powerful words of Yesika Salgado, this piece is a celebration of the complicated and important relationship a woman has with herself. In reference to Salgado’s poem called Corazón Heals Herself, the prominent image of a large heart is the focal point of this piece. In other videos, Salgado explains that while the word corazón means heart in Spanish, it’s also a term of endearment meant to identify herself. This inspiring way of looking at oneself as one’s own heart prompted the artist to wonder what it would be like to imagine our own souls being directly linked to our most vital life-giving organ - the idea that we would cease to exist without our beating heart from a practical perspective but also that we may cease to love unless we're able to truly love ourselves.
Surrounded by the words “you” and “love”, the heart imagery in this piece is overwhelming, bold, bright and loud as the artist drives home the message that the viewer is his/her/their own love, and that the love we have for ourselves sets the pace at which we live our lives and dictates whether or not we’re able to receive love from others or able to give it freely.
The smaller images of heart-shaped grenades are copies of the artist’s early illustration work, Love Is A Battlefield, originally intended to represent the fear and danger that comes with giving one’s heart away, but has now been repurposed in this painting to represent how a lack of love for oneself is destructive.
This painting is a reminder to viewers that we are our greatest loves, and that the rejection and pain caused by others is unpleasant and unwanted, but at the end of the day, we walk through this life on our own, with our own hearts, and the way we speak to ourselves and show up for ourselves can be damaging or it can be expansive, empowering and joyful.
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The VOICES (That’s What She Said) collection is a celebration of the way women have used their words and voices to empower themselves and others.
$1,900.00
Ink, acrylic, spray paint, graphite, pressed leaves, conte on canvas.
36x40"
She saw so clearly in the throws of pain.
The edges of anger so defined, obvious in its sharpness.
But now, the boundaries of peace are hazy and unclear, as if she’s laying in a bed of tropical fronds, unsure of where she begins and ends, enveloped in the sweet softness of safety.
She had no idea there was so much peace to be found in the shrugging of her shoulders, in the sweet release of ‘what if?’ and ‘so what?’
She has made a home in the uncertainty.
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The Mess Collection features a visual mapping of emotions, specifically the celebration of joy, surrender and peace that results from having endured the grieving process as depicted through abstract expressionism and florals.
Abstracted flower imagery along with the use of real pressed botanicals from the artist’s garden can be seen throughout this series as LaCaria explores the paradoxical symbolism behind flowers and how they’re exchanged at both time of celebration and mourning.
The floral elements draw parallels between the impermanence of seasons and life chapters, the ebb and flow of time and the ephemerality of emotions. The artist aims to evoke a nostalgia in the viewer by prompting the recollection of a memory in which flowers were present, for better or for worse.
LaCaria uses bold swatches of colour reminiscent of bouquets and garden beds along with heavy line work symbolic of the written words of eulogies, lost conversations and past self-talk. These expressive elements come together to communicate a visual mapping of the emotional cycles that accompany grief as one moves forward into a state of joy by paying respect to the past self that was left behind.
The resulting collection as a whole features compositions that embody a sense of ascension and levity as emotions appear to lighten and soften towards the upper parts of the canvas; or feature focal points of nothingness through the use of heavy negative space - an intentional commentary on the revelation that comes from the process of surrender, acceptance and the rebirth of the Self.
$2,850.00
Pressed flowers, flashe, coloured pencil, spray paint on raw canvas.
48x48"
She threw a funeral for her past life and invited her Old Self as the guest of honour. She decorated the walls with the whispers, the moans, the screams, the pleas for peace that sat with her night after night.
She thanked her loneliness for keeping her company on the worst nights. Her grief is sacred, it reminds her she’s lucky to have felt it all, in all its imperfect perfection, in all its miserable beauty.
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The Mess Collection features a visual mapping of emotions, specifically the celebration of joy, surrender and peace that results from having endured the grieving process as depicted through abstract expressionism and florals.
Abstracted flower imagery along with the use of real pressed botanicals from the artist’s garden can be seen throughout this series as LaCaria explores the paradoxical symbolism behind flowers and how they’re exchanged at both time of celebration and mourning.
The floral elements draw parallels between the impermanence of seasons and life chapters, the ebb and flow of time and the ephemerality of emotions. The artist aims to evoke a nostalgia in the viewer by prompting the recollection of a memory in which flowers were present, for better or for worse.
LaCaria uses bold swatches of colour reminiscent of bouquets and garden beds along with heavy line work symbolic of the written words of eulogies, lost conversations and past self-talk. These expressive elements come together to communicate a visual mapping of the emotional cycles that accompany grief as one moves forward into a state of joy by paying respect to the past self that was left behind.
The resulting collection as a whole features compositions that embody a sense of ascension and levity as emotions appear to lighten and soften towards the upper parts of the canvas; or feature focal points of nothingness through the use of heavy negative space - an intentional commentary on the revelation that comes from the process of surrender, acceptance and the rebirth of the Self.
$1,900.00
Flashe, spray paint, ink, colored pencil, pressed leaves on canvas.
36x40"
She whispers promises to HerSelf when she’s in the garden. Her quiet words fall gently onto the blooms as she turns the soil.
The breeze carries her intentions off to every corner of her oasis, and the “I love you’s” and the “I’ll never leave you’s” brush up against the leaves until they tumble down and come to rest on the earth.
She plucks the weeds of doubt, uses her whispers of love to silence the fears. There’s only room for hope to grow in the garden of her heart.
__________________
The Mess Collection features a visual mapping of emotions, specifically the celebration of joy, surrender and peace that results from having endured the grieving process as depicted through abstract expressionism and florals.
Abstracted flower imagery along with the use of real pressed botanicals from the artist’s garden can be seen throughout this series as LaCaria explores the paradoxical symbolism behind flowers and how they’re exchanged at both time of celebration and mourning.
The floral elements draw parallels between the impermanence of seasons and life chapters, the ebb and flow of time and the ephemerality of emotions. The artist aims to evoke a nostalgia in the viewer by prompting the recollection of a memory in which flowers were present, for better or for worse.
LaCaria uses bold swatches of colour reminiscent of bouquets and garden beds along with heavy line work symbolic of the written words of eulogies, lost conversations and past self-talk. These expressive elements come together to communicate a visual mapping of the emotional cycles that accompany grief as one moves forward into a state of joy by paying respect to the past self that was left behind.
The resulting collection as a whole features compositions that embody a sense of ascension and levity as emotions appear to lighten and soften towards the upper parts of the canvas; or feature focal points of nothingness through the use of heavy negative space - an intentional commentary on the revelation that comes from the process of surrender, acceptance and the rebirth of the Self.
$1,900.00
Spray paint, acrylic, ink, pressed flowers on raw canvas.
36x40"
The sun wakes up every day and shines her brightest because that is what she is meant to do. The sun isn’t worried about who she blinds. All she does is shine, shine, shine.
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The Mess Collection features a visual mapping of emotions, specifically the celebration of joy, surrender and peace that results from having endured the grieving process as depicted through abstract expressionism and florals.
Abstracted flower imagery along with the use of real pressed botanicals from the artist’s garden can be seen throughout this series as LaCaria explores the paradoxical symbolism behind flowers and how they’re exchanged at both time of celebration and mourning.
The floral elements draw parallels between the impermanence of seasons and life chapters, the ebb and flow of time and the ephemerality of emotions. The artist aims to evoke a nostalgia in the viewer by prompting the recollection of a memory in which flowers were present, for better or for worse.
LaCaria uses bold swatches of colour reminiscent of bouquets and garden beds along with heavy line work symbolic of the written words of eulogies, lost conversations and past self-talk. These expressive elements come together to communicate a visual mapping of the emotional cycles that accompany grief as one moves forward into a state of joy by paying respect to the past self that was left behind.
The resulting collection as a whole features compositions that embody a sense of ascension and levity as emotions appear to lighten and soften towards the upper parts of the canvas; or feature focal points of nothingness through the use of heavy negative space - an intentional commentary on the revelation that comes from the process of surrender, acceptance and the rebirth of the Self.
$1,320.00
Acrylic, ink and pastel on canvas.
40x44"
Seek Change - part of the From The Darkness Comes the Light collection
40" x 44"
The quantum physicist Max Planck said “When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” You may not always be responsible for the changes that come into your life, but you are responsible for changing your outlook and your perspective, because it is through your own perspective that you form your reality.
If you don’t like the way things are looking, change the way you look at them, and then, without a doubt, the things you’ve been looking at will have changed, as well. Change is good. Stagnation is sadness, it is heavy, it is death. Change is hopeful, healthy and beautiful. Seek the change you want to see in your life. You’re the only one who is capable of changing things for yourself, you’re the only one who can truly affect your own reality.
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The From The Darkness Comes The Light collection explores the intense feeling of levity that finally strikes after a heavy period of pain and suffering. These works are a reminder not to be afraid of the darkness. In order to release the pain that you’re feeling, you have to feel it. Pain is unpleasant, emotional and physical pain alike. We have associated pain as being a negative emotion, but what if we accepted emotional pain as just another feeling? Just like happiness and joy, it is merely a feeling, and it won’t last forever. This series serves as a reminder that sometimes the greatest joy follows times of intense pain.
$1,700.00
Acrylic, ink, conte, gold leaf on canvas.
47.50x47.50"
Strength in Softness - part of From The Darkness Comes the Light collection
47.5" x 47.5"
May we learn to be strong by being soft. May we gain our strength from the courage it takes to let our guard down; by letting others in and showing vulnerability; by allowing fear to come pouring out so that healing can begin.
To be soft is to be without hard edges, without daggers, without swords or blades. Softness is gentle like the petals of a flower. Gentle like the downy carpet of a grassy field. Softness is always strong in its collective. One petal alone cannot guard the pollen of a flower, but many together form a barrier. One blade of grass is meaningless and insignificant, but many together make for a breathtaking surface of movement and colour that protects the Earth beneath it.
In numbers, softness is strong. And in this vein of thought, I invite you to collect all the soft parts of your heart, mind and soul and celebrate them for their collective strength. For me, these parts of myself come together to create a strong person - not an invincible person, but one who has become strong in her conviction and truth.
Your softness is your superpower: your ability to bend, break, crumble and come back again afterwards, tougher than before. Your softness makes for gentle hugs from strong arms, soft cushioning upon a courageous chest, gently rounded curves of the shoulders that have carried the burdens of others without hesitation.
Your softness IS your strength.
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The From The Darkness Comes The Light collection explores the intense feeling of levity that finally strikes after a heavy period of pain and suffering. These works are a reminder not to be afraid of the darkness. In order to release the pain that you’re feeling, you have to feel it. Pain is unpleasant, emotional and physical pain alike. We have associated pain as being a negative emotion, but what if we accepted emotional pain as just another feeling? Just like happiness and joy, it is merely a feeling, and it won’t last forever. This series serves as a reminder that sometimes the greatest joy follows times of intense pain.