Carla Contreras is a multidisciplinary Latin American contemporary artist. Her practice examines the intersection between urban development and the human condition in a booming metropolis like Atlanta. In the recognition of utility marking language from the utility service sector and construction industry, the work comments and raises questions about gentrification and its sociocultural impact. The formal language of the work is drawn from the observation and exploration of the booming urban ecosystem and its inhabitants. Contreras’s work has been exhibited at MOCA GA, The State Museum, PA, and local contemporary galleries like MINT, Besharat, and Open Space. Contreras has been featured in publications and reviews of Studio Visit Magazine, BURNAWAY and ArtsATL.

From the Artist... My work examines the relation between urban development and the human condition. I am interested in analyzing and questioning the impact of a booming urban ecosystem over its inhabitants and their interactions within those transforming surroundings. Through a multidisciplinary approach that combines video installation, painting, drawing, and printmaking I intend to tackle societal challenges and hurdles such as the fragmentation of communities, sterilization of areas of the city, and homogenization of populations. The formal language and color palette of the work is drawn from the recognition and observation of visual information and marking systems in the utility sector and construction industry, as well as from an intimate and more personal processes and interactions with simple living organisms such as kidney bean sprouts that I grow in cotton balls.