Squashed (green/brown)

Angela de la Cruz describes her paintings as ‘everyday paintings’. Starting with richly painted monochrome canvases, she smashes, rips, crumples and folds her paintings - often situating them in awkward positions such as in a corner, under a chair, trapped in a door. Her works have titles such as ‘Ashamed’, ‘Knackered’, ‘Homeless’ they become misfits; bullied, embarrassed, displaced, miserable, - almost human in their experience. Often recycled and sometimes barely recognisable as paintings, they are given new life through the actions imposed on them; the minimalist canvas becomes a painting object with an emotionally charged presence.

One of the most captivating things about de la Cruz’s work is the way in which it teases the viewer about the status of the artwork. As her paintings are often propped against or hung low on the wall, surrounded by furniture, you can’t be sure if they have been deliberately vandalised or accidentally damaged. Having lost their traditional form, de la Cruz’s works become the victims of her manipulation; their remote status tarnished by the intrusion of another object.

De la Cruz says that she reached a point at art school where she couldn’t paint. “I was painting the same painting again and again. One day I just broke the painting. Not in anger but in sadness.” In the process, de la Cruz reinvented herself not as a melancholy vandal but as an extraordinary sculptor.