Meine Bilder zeigen meine Auseinandersetzung mit meiner persönlichen Geschichte.
Meine Figuren sind auf einem einsamen Weg durch ihre emotionale Landschaft: sie rennen, fliehen, taumeln durch eine instabile Welt, halten auf unberechenbarem Boden inne, streben zum Licht.
Ich sehe seelische Prozesse als eine Erzählung. Eine Geschichte, in der man sich verlaufen kann, in der aber auch Wege hinaus möglich sind, in der manche vom Dunkel gefressen werden und andere es bannen können und in der - vielleicht? - die Gründe dafür zu finden sind.
Eine Erzählung, deren oberste Wahrheit Gefühle sind.
Oft ist die Leinwand Teil dieser Geschichte; dann verätze, zerreisse oder nähe ich sie zusammen. Fast immer gebe ich ihr mit Farbschichten starke Struktur und sehr unebenen Untergrund, der teilweise aufbricht - es soll wirken, als würde das Bild sich bewegen, denn nichts ist fest bis auf das Gefühl dieses Augenblicks.
My paintings show my involvement with my personal history.
My figures are on a lonely path through their emotional landscape: running, fleeing, staggering through an unstable world, pausing on unpredictable ground, striving towards the light.
I see emotional processes as a narrative. A story in which one can get lost, but in which ways out are also possible, in which some are eaten by darkness and others can banish it and in which - maybe? - the reasons for it are to be found.
A narrative whose supreme truth is emotion.
Often the canvas is part of this story; then I cauterize, tear or sew it together. Almost always I create strong structure and a very uneven ground, which partially breaks up - it should seem as if the image is moving, because nothing is fixed except for the feeling of this moment.
...strong impressions by Lara Bandilla...between magical realism and deliberate abstraction...especially emotional and incisive are the works in which she narrates of her own family history....
Elisa Krooß, Westdeutsche Zeitung
Bandilla breaks down a post-apocalyptic world into layers and snapshots. Following them, maps of cities, rivers, stars, and imaginary spaces unfold - a poetic approach to a non-place. The world Bandilla depicts is made up of elements of language, the surreal, and everyday life that continually dissolve, only to reform in the next step. The artist breaks down her images into different levels to get a different view of the streets and the world....
Sozialistische Tageszeitung neues deutschland
...the dreamlike pictures include areas of near-photographic realism, but also sections where the image seems to melt — more in the manner of Gerhard Richter’s photo-derived blurs than Salvador Dali’s drippy surrealism...
Mark Jenkins, Washington Post
The impression of light and movement is characteristic for the series of paintings, in which the painter confronts the viewer with a "different reality"... The white light makes the street alignments and squares appear otherworldly...the fusion of disparate motifs, the plunging lines, the deliberate blurring, and the dramatic contrasts of light and dark make it difficult to locate them, which is not at all Bandilla's intention. "I want to capture the moment of timelessness," explains the painter, whose paintings are reminiscent of film sequences...
Hannah Styrie, Kölner Rundschau
Exhibitions
IMPRINTS, solo exhibition, Galerie Philoart, Wuppertal, September 2023/ SPUREN DES MENSCHEN, group exhibition,Taith Contemporary, Vienna, 2023/ SHOW No.4, solo exhibition, WomenPaintersRoom, Berlin, 2022/ AESTHETICS OF A DISENCHANTED WORLD, group exhibition, Goerz Höfe, Berlin, 2022, curated by Lara Bandilla, participating artists: Marc Bodie, Monique Schumacher, Angharad Taris, Carys Evans, Wolfgang Sinwel, Julie Davis, David A. Kilvington, Àgnes Zászkaliczky, Shaun Brosnan, Mark Goldsworthy, Kathrin Landa, Ulrike Dornis, Marlies Ziemke, Annette Selle, Mark Thompson, Caroline Corleone, Lothar Düver, Lara Bandilla/ MAKE ART NOT WAR, group exhibition, Galerie Philoart, Wuppertal, 2022/ ORLANDO, group exhibition, Taith Contemporary, Vienna, 2021/ ON VIEW, solo exhibition, Galerie Philoart, Wuppertal, 2021/ DAS FREMDE IN UNS, group exhibition, Galerie Philoart, Wuppertal, 2020/ DER AUGENBLICK, solo exhibition, Taith Contemporary, Vienna, 2019/ EDEN, solo exhibition, Galerie Philoart, Wuppertal, 201/ ON THE ROAD, solo exhibition, Galerie Steiner, Berlin, 2017/ OF TIME AND LIGHT, solo exhibition, IA&A Hillyer Art Space, Washington DC, USA, 2013/ ARCHAICS, solo exhibition, Kunstverein Hattingen, 2012/ STUDIO EXHIBITION, solo exhibition, Studio Schaperstrasse, Berlin, 2011/ ZEIT LICHT, solo exhibition, Christuskirche, Cologne, 2011/ LICHT SCHWEBE RAUM, group exhibition, Ballhaus im Nordpark, Düsseldorf, 2011/ TRACING PENTHESILEA, solo exhibition, Galerie Golkar, Bonn, 2010/ AFFORDABLE ART FAIR AMSTERDAM/ SHANGHAI ART FAIR/ GOOD AMERICA - BAD AMERICA, Museum Walter, Augsburg/ KUNSTVEREIN NEUEHRENFELD KÖLN/ WELCOME TO PARADISE, Megahertz Records/ PHANTASTISCHE KREATUREN, Württembergisches Palais, Regensburg/ WASSER, Museumsnacht Regensburg/ SALON, Salon DÓrpheé, Regensburg/ THE TIME OF THE DOGS, Kulturspeicher, Regensburg/ PENTHESILEA - THE UNGUIDED WILL, Kleist Museum, Frankfurt an der Oder/ SOGNANDO DIO, Centro Pellegrini, Rome