Shana Nys Dambrot
Artist Camille Rose Garcia is enthralled and immersed in the magic of the majestic, transcendent, vast, intimate, and vulnerable natural world. Increasingly devoted to her life along California’s forested northern coast, this child of extremely urban Los Angeles has developed a unique language of characters and symbols to express both a science-fiction inflected demimonde of spirits and witch queens, and an attentive, appreciative regard for the winged creatures of this planet and the rings and orbits of others. When a huge area of her beloved woodland was ravaged by a fire in 2023, Garcia turned to her art to express her sense of loss, dreams of a better world, and hope for healing—all of which though quite literal also makes a compelling metaphor for the human condition in these fraught and dangerous times.
Garcia’s new exhibition at KP Projects gallery, The Polyphonic Fortress, opens this weekend and depicts glimpses into worlds of shells and driftwood, interstellar moonrises, bugs with kaleidoscopic wings, burnt offerings and shimmering mists, fragile glaciers and heavy oceans, and above all the willful, defiant, glamorous embodiment of the universe’s feminine powers. With a lofty, illuminated evocation of poets who honor and channel the beauty of nature and lament its loss, Garcia proceeds (per the cryptic titles of several works) toward what Pablo Neruda saw “when the purple light whispers to the moon in silent clarity,” and searches for the new layers of consciousness and understanding that Octavio Paz called the “bridge between nature and us.”
Camille Rose Garcia: Aduren Olbap Daer (Courtesy of the artist and KP Projects)
L.A. WEEKLY: When did you first know you were an artist?
CAMILLE ROSE GARCIA: There was never a time when I wasn’t drawing, even from a very young age. But I think, maybe I was 3? I remember spinning around in circles to “Strawberry Fields” by The Beatles, and seeing images in my mind from the song. That sort of started the process of trying to paint what’s in my imagination.
What is your short answer to people who ask what your work is about?
My work has always been about nature and escapism and how they intersect with Capitalism, which I define as, taking all the magic in the world and turning it into landfill.
Camille Rose Garcia: The Mother of Fragile Suns (Courtesy of the artist and KP Projects)
What would you be doing if you weren’t an artist?
I would be a very broke musician. Or a very broke writer.
Did you go to art school? Why/Why not?
I went to art school in the early 90’s when it was still actually affordable. I went to Otis/Parsons for undergrad, then UC Davis for grad school. Unfortunately, it’s so expensive now and out of step with the realities of what a career in the arts looks like. The main thing any creative person needs is less monthly overhead.
Camille Rose Garcia: Transmission From the Drifting Zone (Courtesy of the artist and KP Projects)
What do you love about L.A.?
I was born in Los Angeles and have always felt that its particular magical quality, the music, the diversity, the landscapes, have informed who I am on such a deep level. California sort of embodies an entire cultural ideal of expanding forward into the unknown and forming new territories of consciousness. Whether it be the 60’s counterculture movements, the Chicano civil rights movements that were centered here, or the dream machine of Hollywood, Los Angeles has always set the bar a little higher when it comes to an evolving and dynamic creative frontier.
Camille Rose Garcia: A Song for Remembering (Courtesy of the artist and KP Projects)
When was your first show?
My first real show was in 1999 at Merry Karnowsky Gallery. I remember the entire show was sold out before it was opened, and yet I was $60 overdrawn at the bank.
When is/was your current/most recent/next show or project?
My next show opens this Saturday, February 10th in Los Angeles at KP Projects Gallery [K for Merry Karnowsky]. The Polyphonic Fortress is the work I’m most proud of to date! Come and check it out.
What artist living or dead would you most like to show or work with?
I would love to be besties with Remedios Varo and Leonora Carrington and be like, the third wheel friend that brings over great mole so they have to teach me how to talk to cats.
Camille Rose Garcia: Twilight of the Blue Beetle (Courtesy of the artist and KP Projects)
Do you listen to music while you work? If so, what?
Oh man, yes see this is my entire process!! Daytime is usually more instrumental or without lyrics or like, softly whispered. So the classical music station, Ravi Shankar, Druid chanting, Godspeed! You Black Emperor, Sufjan Stevens. If I’m feeling insane, then Gyorgi Ligetti Atmospheres or recordings of rainstorms with thunder. If it’s winter, Chelsea Wolfe, Fleet Foxes, Bon Iver, Nick Drake, Smog, Nico, Velvet Underground. At night it’s louder to keep my energy up, so we do tons of Queens of The Stone Age, Bowie, FUZZ, T.Rex, Tool, Ty Segal, Hole, PJ Harvey, The Distillers, The Pretenders, The Rolling Stones, Black Sabbath, Car Seat Headrest, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, the Clash, The Cramps, The Coathangers, Credence. Also folk—Joni Mitchell, Cat Stevens, Van Morrison, Neil Young. I’m currently listening to The Replacements non-stop. It’s like a ritual, I can’t start until I hear “The Song.”
Web & Socials, please!
IG: @crgstudios
Camille Rose Garcia: K Pillihp Daer (Courtesy of the artist and KP Projects)
Camille Rose Garcia: Ocean of Dione (Courtesy of the artist and KP Projects)
Camille Rose Garcia: Dream Drifter with Shell (Courtesy of the artist and KP Projects)
❖Editor’s note: The disclaimer below refers to advertising posts and does not apply to this or any other editorial stories.
Advertising disclosure: We may receive compensation for some of the links in our stories. Thank you for supporting LA Weekly and our advertisers.