Angela Maree Sáenz is a Salvadoran-American artist who’s multidisciplinary practice spans printmaking, painting, drawing, and sculpture. Transmuting her works between mediums she connects themes of love, loss, identity, language, and self-preservation through process and material. Like her memories, her work is affected by her relationship to the external world in tandem with her internal realities. In this case, the external is represented in what is realized (the subject), and the internal represents what is imagined (color, stroke, movement, construction). Across these themes and mediums she seeks to embrace the ambiguities between imagination and reality, transcend imperial structures rooted in fear and isolation, and transform futile states of being into hope.
Her work is inspired by storytelling modules, art history, psychology, nature, and personal histories with grief and transformation. The idea of the malleable self, whether painted through depictions of friends, still lifes, visual poetry, safe spaces, and inner worlds, is a recurring theme in her work that allows her to reinterpret and question the world(s) she inhabits. Sáenz received her BFA from Pacific Northwest College of Art, Portland, OR (2018). She is part of Maracuya Con Leche alongside Laura Camila Medina, where together they have participated in residence at the Independent Publishing Resource Center (2020) and Caldera Arts (2022). She has also participated in residence with Living School of Art (2020), and most recently at Pocoapoco in Oaxaca, MX (2024).
CV︎
Painting
Printmaking
Photos Courtesy of Mario Gallucci and Kevin McConnell
For inquiries on available works, please email angelamareesaenz@gmail.com
Give Me One Last Chorus
In Give Me One Last Chorus, Angela Maree Sáenz presents a series of etchings through the digital landscape of a rendered video installation.
The setting created is immediately eerie and otherworldly; situated atop a staggering high plateau. Here, six bare trees stand in a circle, spindly tall and each displaying a mounted print on paper. The words, “you don’t have to…. you don’t have to…. take it,” sing, echoing and repeating in a piercing pitch mirroring the sharp, dagger-like shadows cast from the branches overhead.
The series of prints are examined in a clockwise fashion, as though reading a book wherein you must walk to each page. In magenta ink, they depict a young feminine body, naked and winged. The sound of swords clashing intensifies as the imagery of the prints arcs through a narrative of lovership and pain.
Through the sharp printmaking process of etching into metal, Sáenz gazes into the darkest and most potent feelings of loss. The creatures of the story are both maleficent and angelic, innocent and capable of bloodshed. The titles of each print are incisive. Sáenz agreed, sharing that the titles preceded the work itself in the form of a brief writing, seemingly scribbled in direct transmission.
The video’s resulting chorus of word, imagery, and sound enact a ceremony of rectification through witness. It is also worth noting that the combination of mediums used is a departure for the artist who typically works in oil paint. In this way, Give Me One Last Chorus, signals a courageous and exposed entry into new worlds. The artist is armed with weapons of clarity and distinct selfhood.
The setting created is immediately eerie and otherworldly; situated atop a staggering high plateau. Here, six bare trees stand in a circle, spindly tall and each displaying a mounted print on paper. The words, “you don’t have to…. you don’t have to…. take it,” sing, echoing and repeating in a piercing pitch mirroring the sharp, dagger-like shadows cast from the branches overhead.
The series of prints are examined in a clockwise fashion, as though reading a book wherein you must walk to each page. In magenta ink, they depict a young feminine body, naked and winged. The sound of swords clashing intensifies as the imagery of the prints arcs through a narrative of lovership and pain.
Through the sharp printmaking process of etching into metal, Sáenz gazes into the darkest and most potent feelings of loss. The creatures of the story are both maleficent and angelic, innocent and capable of bloodshed. The titles of each print are incisive. Sáenz agreed, sharing that the titles preceded the work itself in the form of a brief writing, seemingly scribbled in direct transmission.
The video’s resulting chorus of word, imagery, and sound enact a ceremony of rectification through witness. It is also worth noting that the combination of mediums used is a departure for the artist who typically works in oil paint. In this way, Give Me One Last Chorus, signals a courageous and exposed entry into new worlds. The artist is armed with weapons of clarity and distinct selfhood.
Written by Ahnika Wood
Give Me One Last Chorus
Drypoint on Somerset, 4 Suites (ea. with an edition of 6)
Video Installation
Angela Maree Saenz
Alejandra Arias Sevilla, Printing Collaborator
Brady Cundall, Virtual Collaborator
2023-2024
Funded by Regional Arts and Culture Council
I’d Prefer Not To
Group ExhibitionMarie Watt Studio
On View, July 14, 2023
Flyer created by Olivia Faith Harwood
Photos courtesy of Kevin McConnell
Marie Watt Studio presents I’d Prefer Not To, a pop-up gallery show featuring artworks from Angela Saenz, Amy Hunter, Dakotah Fitzugh, Isabella Saavedra, Olivia Harwood, and Victoria Xiao.
I’d Prefer Not To is a collaborative project that extends far beyond a single night. At the heart, we are a group of artists that formed a friendship while working at Marie Watt Studio. As we worked on projects together as studio assistants, the conversations we generated while sitting around a table revealed shared hopes, dreams, and fears. In many ways, this exhibition is a reflection of us, our connection, and our realities that have been deeply informed by the current events happening in our world.
In I’d Prefer Not To, artists investigate realms of disillusionment and the conflicting internal and external realities within our existing positionality. What results is an exploration of rage, comfort, and containment. Artists examine how personal and collective memories shape our identities, and confront the discomfort and resistance that arise when we reject the passive acceptance of circumstances beyond our control.
I’d Prefer Not To is a collaborative project that extends far beyond a single night. At the heart, we are a group of artists that formed a friendship while working at Marie Watt Studio. As we worked on projects together as studio assistants, the conversations we generated while sitting around a table revealed shared hopes, dreams, and fears. In many ways, this exhibition is a reflection of us, our connection, and our realities that have been deeply informed by the current events happening in our world.
In I’d Prefer Not To, artists investigate realms of disillusionment and the conflicting internal and external realities within our existing positionality. What results is an exploration of rage, comfort, and containment. Artists examine how personal and collective memories shape our identities, and confront the discomfort and resistance that arise when we reject the passive acceptance of circumstances beyond our control.
Written by Victoria Xiao
Mirror Mirror, Mira Mira
Laura Camila Medina and Angela Maree SaenzCurated by Luiza Lukova
Opening Night, January 8, 2022
On View, January 8 - 30, 2022
Flyer created by Angela Maree Saenz
Photos courtesy of Mario Gallucci
In Mirror Mirror, Mira Mira, Portland-based artists Laura Camila Medina and Angela Maree Saenz present a compelling suite of unrealeased paintings, drawings and monotype prints that inspire conversation around community, care and connection. Medina’s otherworldly watercolor illustrations depict anthropomorphic qualities - a face, a body, a hand - that help situate the image while also transporting viewers to a magical, indistinct space entirely of her crafting. In turn, Saenz’s honest and vibrant oil on canvas portraits instantly place viewers within a comfortable frame of intimacy, evading hyper-realism with their freeform, monochromatic backgrounds and stylized brush strokes. Seperately and in tandem, the artists present viewers world-building techniques that create meaningful naratives meant to reimagine and question the world they inhabit.
Medina and Saenz harness a power of transformation with these pieces that reflects inwards, pulling from intimate thoughts and emotions, and outwards, hoping to channel a similar self within their audience. They imply the familiar manner in which faces, objects, and patterns can transport the gallery-goer to a dreamlike place and state. The works seem to ask, how do we all relate? What might be possible if we experienced no barriers or obstacles to our personal dreams?
Written by Luiza Lukova
Medina and Saenz harness a power of transformation with these pieces that reflects inwards, pulling from intimate thoughts and emotions, and outwards, hoping to channel a similar self within their audience. They imply the familiar manner in which faces, objects, and patterns can transport the gallery-goer to a dreamlike place and state. The works seem to ask, how do we all relate? What might be possible if we experienced no barriers or obstacles to our personal dreams?