Marianela de la Hoz and Marc Urselli / Palpitations: The Cadence of Heartbeats

This installation is the result of a unique collaboration between painter Marianela de la Hoz and sound artist Marc Urselli.

Marc Urselli first experienced the work of Marianela de la Hoz at The San Diego Museum of Art in 2021, with her solo exhibition Paintings from the Confinement that responded to the global pandemic.

In Palpitations, de la Hoz has departed from her practice of creating miniatures in tempera on board, and instead has worked in acrylics and mixed media techniques in order to paint speaker cones. These emit sounds, simultaneously or in solitude, that have been created by Urselli in direct response to the images. The paintings are then animated by the vibrations of sound, as if the tone were breathing life into them. Together the images and sound reverberate in an immersive experience.

The theme of palpitations—the sound and movement of a beating heart–becomes a life force that is represented in each work with the visceral depiction of a heart. The humanistic themes of birth and death, war, and hope, are timeless and point to the dualities of experience. Each work is painted with exquisite detail and precision, some using the finest brushes with only a few hairs. The paintings speak to the fragility of life, yet also to a sense of mystery and resilience, echoed with the vibrations and range of muted sounds emitted through the speakers.

Marianela de la Hoz (Mexican, b. 1956) lives and works in San Diego. Her paintings can be found in collections throughout the USA as well as in Germany, Japan, Mexico, and the United Arab Emirates.

Marc Urselli (Swiss-Italian, b. 1977) lives and works in New York City and is the Chief House Engineer for the historic EastSide Sound recording studio and owner of Audio Confidential studio. He has won multiple awards, including three Grammy Awards and seven Grammy Award nominations, as a music producer, audio engineer, mixer, and innovative sound designer.

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