Vanessa Machin

Vanessa Machin is an emerging artist based in San Diego, California. She is currently completing a double degree in Studio Art and Communications at the University of California San Diego with a specialization in Cognitive Science Design. She works with a wide breadth of materials including paint, found objects, fused and stained glass, textiles, and cardboard to create large scale art environments which invite viewers to confront the concepts of selfhood, female multiplicity and the body’s orientation in space. Machin often acts as both the artist and the muse in pieces which embrace humor, kitsch, self reference and craft. At the core of her work is the idea that home is within and space is an extension of the self.

Machin curated and exhibited her own show ‘Femininity and Coming of Age’ in 2018 which was written about in the Del Mar Times. She has since been featured in multiple shows at the UCSD Kamil Gallery. More recently, Machin has become the recipient of the 2022 Russell Foundation Grant which she will use to support her most recent large scale mosaic to be installed on the UCSD campus.

Over the last 2 years Machin has begun to delve into large scale public art and brings the exploration of the self and space into the community arena. Machin is currently working as a mosaic artist at the Rainforest Art Project in Barrio Logan, providing education and community based public artwork to schools across South East San Diego.

These are a few Prototypes for Machin's upcoming mosaic mural: A public art piece which will be installed in Mandeville at UCSD

Paintings surrounding self and space

Artist Statement

I believe that objects and spaces are entities of their own that hold and remember the past. In the same way, the body remembers long after the mind forgets. At the core of my work is the idea that home is within and space is an extension of the self. I use a variety of materials including paint, found objects, mosaic, fused and stained glass, textiles, and cardboard to create large scale art environments and public pieces. My projects invite viewers to confront the concepts of home, the female body and the multiplicitous self.

In my practice, my body and the environments I interact with are used as vehicles to discuss topics from displacement to the regenesis of self. My unique perspective on what it means to be embodied and to take ownership over space is informed by my identity as a multinational modern woman. My recent struggles with an autoimmune disorder have also impacted my concept of selfhood and the body. Taking up space in male dominated fields and deconstructing canons of traditional womanhood through pastiche are common themes explored in my artwork. This often manifests in the form of self portraits. Having lived in 5 places in the last year and moved frequently throughout childhood, my depictions of domestic spaces, often referencing previous artworks, are another way I explore the orientation of the body to the ‘home’.

More recently, I have begun to explore community based public art and the creation of communal space informed by collective experiences. My recent work examines the way we imbue shared spaces with beauty and meaning. The act of interviewing, teaching and completing work in conjunction with others who inhabit its space has become a crucial part of my process interrogating the individual and their perception of public spaces.

I embrace humor, kitsch, self reference and craft, to transform human experiences into visual microcosms of the desire for connection and self discovery that lives within us all.