Olga Mercedes Bautista
Colombian-American sculptor Olga Mercedes Bautista has been awarded several certificates of appreciation from the mayors of Newark, Jersey City, and Perth Amboy. She worked for the city of Perth Amboy as a Founder-Director of the Perth Amboy Gallery, as a curator of art exhibitions, festivals, and art shows in the city. After receiving a Master in Fine Arts Education from Kean University, she became an art teacher at the Perth Amboy High School. Bautista has held this position for the past 20 years. Bautista holds a Studio Art, with a specialization in Fine Arts Master's degree from New Jersey City University.
Bautista’s work has been informed by both the catastrophic experience of Hurricane Sandy and humanity’s complicated relationship to plastic. She began to collect fallen tree barks and a variety of plastic bags used by merchants. The action of collecting is an essential part of the work. Using these materials she created new forms by bonding layers of the tree bark, leaves, and plastic debris to mold a new hybrid tree. Her work demonstrates how the plastic which is used by merchants to package the products they sell represents consumerism and materialism in today’s society. Her artificial barks become both consumer products and polluted agents.
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