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Shirley Villavicencio Pizango paints with fast, spontaneous lines and bright, warm colours. Her works seem to balance the border between drawing and painting. There are two recurring themes in Villavicencio Pizango’s work: portraits and still lifes.

The portraits are very classical, from live models. She portrays herself, friends and family. According to the artist, these portraits are not an exact representation of her models as a photograph would be. She paints an interpretation of her models. This allows her to experiment with her painterly practice, but above all to incorporate her own thoughts, feelings and own view of the person being portrayed into the portrait. Identity politics plays an important role here. The idea of beauty that is imposed on us is very one-sided: white, athletic, etc. The history of art is also painfully white and uncoloured. In her portraits, Villavicencio Pizango shows people with darker skin colour – herself, friends and family. It is important that the diversity inherent in our world also finds its place in our visual culture and becomes part of art history.

In her still lifes, Villavicencio Pizango brings elements from her studio into an image. She very deliberately chooses to create a certain atmosphere in her studio. She is surrounded by flowers and plants, curiosities, rattan furniture, ethnic masks, ceramic vases and jugs of her own making, works of befriended artists, and of course a great many of her own works – both very early and newly painted works, works that have failed or were once started but not yet finished. In a way, these still lifes can also be read as (self-)portraits, as a glimpse into the mind and the life of the artist.