Tara Esperanza: I SEE YOU

Mercury 20 is pleased to present Tara Esperanza’s first solo show at the gallery, I SEE YOU, an exhibit of large paintings of succulents with a new perspective.

Since 2018, Tara has been creating succulent paintings. In late 2017 she was commissioned to make a large painting (30″ x 64″) of particular succulents. Though at the time she had not paid much attention to succulents, she was a plant lover, so she gladly accepted. She began paying closer attention to succulents on her daily dog walks and runs. It quickly became an obsession and from there the series was born. She realized that she had passed so many gorgeous plants for years and never noticed their obvious beauty. She aims to make them seen through her paintings. Tara says, “They are beautiful and deserve to be seen in a big way, so I paint them big.”

She is interested in the plant personalities. The abundant varieties of texture, color, shape, and how succulents change with the seasons. She celebrates their diversity, how succulents share space, lean on each other, or hold each other up. Tara’s paintings look deep into the plants. In I SEE YOU she aims to bring the viewer in to offer a new perspective and share her intimate viewpoint of succulents through her art.