Diana Lozano and Alina Perez. Sub Rosa

About

Lozano and Perez create an environment where plants and flowers carry mythology, words and symbols linger, memories and thoughts lapse, and the lines of reality are blurred. From Lozano’s sculptural interplay of object and skin, to Perez’s detailed renderings of thick facial hair and bruises of uncertain origin, the works presented in Sub Rosa hum with sentimentality and tenderness. As plant forms mimic the human body, vines climb throughout the gallery, and natural forms take on their own distinct psychological states, the viewer is exposed to an environment that is simultaneously terrestrial and surreal.

Drawing on her horticultural background (both her parents were botanists), Lozano’s hand-molded sculptures map cultural displacement onto fashion objects. The works, rich in color and texture, embody a personal fusing of accessorization culture and its natural parallels in the plant world, aiming to dissolve the fixed narratives of gender distinction.

Perez uses her drawings as a tool to navigate her past identities and experiences. Rendered with meticulous detail in lush pastel and charcoal, the drawings play with the dualities of touch and sexuality: the lines between caress and abuse, repression and expression.