New Natasha Zupan: No Place Like Home

Natasha Zupan describes her work as the intersection between time and emotion—where romance, beauty, desire, delusion, intrigue and risk all come together to create a single moment artfully captured in collage. Her subjects are often deeply personal and typically relatable, frequently focusing on relationships and the emotional muck that comes along with them. 

From her erotic displays of love and passion, to her chaotic patchworks of confusion and despair—her art often blurs the boundaries of structure and form, experimentation and tradition to produce work that is utterly elemental in its emotion. 

In order to accomplish all this on canvas, Zupan employs a multitude of techniques. Gold leaf, rabbit skin, acrylic, antique fabrics and Internet images are just some of the media Zupan has used to color her world. Collage, she asserts, allows the immaterial to converge with the material—the emotional imbuement of the inanimate. 

Zupan was first famed for “Flesh Folds,” an intriguing bare-all collection of conceptual collages composed mostly of underwear – her own as well as others. Ten years later, Zupan now introduces a new series of mixed media masterpieces entitled “There is No Place Like Home” that evokes iconic American symbols in a playfully-ironic way from a European perspective. Sorry kids, there is no underwear in the new collection! Come see for yourself as Alexander Salazar Fine Art presents an exclusive two-day Artist Reception with Natasha Zupan, November 19th & 20th.

In anticipation of the San Diego debut, we got intimate with Natasha Zupan to discover the original inspiration for “Fresh Folds,” how she’s changed as an artist over the decade, and what new motivations, materials and techniques we can expect to see in the new collection.

DiscoverSD: We first fell in love with your style during the bare-all Fresh Folds collection. What story are you communicating through public display of your personal underwear?
Natasha Zupan: Where do I begin! There are so many stories, but I never thought of it as a ‘public’ display. I always used fabric in my works, mixed media being my technique of preference. So it was just more fabric! But, when I found out my cleaning lady had been wearing mine, well, I wanted to get rid of them, and at the same time tell a story and purge the situation.

DSD: You have been quoted to describe your work as the intersection between time and emotion. Can you please explain what that means to you?
Zupan: I feel that Time is linear and Emotions are elliptical. They co-exist and intersect with each other…so, a garment, for example, is a time capsule, soaked with emotional experiences and information. 

DSD: What was the inspiration for your new artwork this year? How does it compare or differ from the Fresh Folds collection?
Zupan: The new work is different in format and material. Sorry, NO under ware! I used blow ups of my own works, inverted them, printed them on canvass, and then worked on them with oil, collage and fabric. I was inspired by ‘American’ imagery, and symbols, and sense of irony…seen from a European perspective: nurses, superman, Snoopy, cupcakes, drones. I wanted some humor, and some irony. The show is called: “There is no place like home.”

DSD: What techniques and materials are prominent in your new artwork?
Zupan: Photography, fabric, oil, glitter, copper, white gold…collage!

DSD: How do you feel that you as an artist have changed since the first creation of Fresh Folds?
Zupan: Ten years is a long time in an artist’s career. I grew up and was trained in Europe, and my father is a figurative painter so I have a rigorous academic background. When I went to Yale, it was all deconstructed! I love to explore and subvert, all ‘mixed media’ techniques. For me it is all part of the same dialogue and research. The co-existence of opposites.

DSD: We admire your work so much because of your ability to share such deeply personal emotions. Do you ever feel vulnerable?
Zupan: Art is so personal, that when I am making it I really don’t think about the public. I am isolated in my ‘lab’ experimenting. I do like it when people relate to my work. I think the more personal an artist is, the more it touches the viewer. Vulnerable? Not really, you have to believe in what you do!

DSD: What can we expect to see in the upcoming San Diego exhibit at Alexander Salazar Fine Art Gallery?
Zupan: I can’t tell you! You must come and see.

DSD: How many times have you been to San Diego?
Zupan: I have been only once, but fell in love with San Diego. I lived in L.A for three years back in the early ‘90s. I should have come to San Diego and maybe I would have stayed.

Alexander Salazar Fine Art presents an exclusive two-day Artist Reception with Natasha Zupan on November 19th & 20th. For more information, please visit alexandersalazarfineart.com and natashazupan.com.

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