ARTIST / WHO ART YOU
Flo Mena
Cyanotype, light & painting
A painter with an architectural background, exploring bodily memory through cyanotype, collage and colour.
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Practice & background
Chilean-born and Los Angeles-based, Flo Mena moved from a master’s degree in architecture toward art, including training at Milan Art Institute. Painting, embroidery, ceramics and mixed media form her practice.
Colour and intuition help her articulate emotional experience. Winning Art Battle Los Angeles in 2022 marked an important move from private making into public performance.
PIECES II reworks images from PIECES I through cyanotype, hand-built collage and painting. Its seven variations correspond to the days of a week. In No. 6, portraiture, lettering and colour are fragmented and recombined, with the frame participating in the composition.
Who Art You records her discussion of exposing paper, adding colour and waiting for paint to dry. Seen alongside the finished works, these small decisions reveal how a layered image emerges from choices made in dialogue with light and time.
Looking at the work
Cyanotype, painting and mixed media, with attention to exposure, drying and layering; her wider practice also includes embroidery and ceramics.
IN THE ARTIST’S WORDS
“[Expose] this one first, and then this one in the middle at a different time.”Explore the conversation ↗
Works & practice
PIECES II – No. 6; cyanotype, mixed media and collage on cotton acid-free paper.
Image source: Flo Mena official website · View original source ↗A few words to look with
Cyanotype
A photographic printing process using light-sensitive iron salts, UV exposure and washing to form blue images. Objects or negatives block light; time, light and masking affect the result.
Textile & fibre art
Art using threads, fibres, cloth or related structures through weaving, stitching, embroidery or unconventional materials. The time and bodily labour of making can also be meaningful.
Works & further reading
Continue with the artist’s own work and institutional sources.
Artist website ↗Instagram ↗Profile based on the sources listed above; the conversation informs the viewing questions and work guides.