Chanan Delivuk: Would you be so kind as to talk about how you got into the arts?
Victoria F. Gaitán: I spent a lot of time alone as a child drawing and in my own world. I went to a very tight-laced private school that luckily had a great art teacher who was very supportive. From there I went directly to art school which served mainly as a place where I could just make my stuff and start showing it.
CD: From shows to studio visit with Mera Rubell, it seems that you have put a nice foot forward in the local art scene. What has that been like for you?
VFG: DC has such a great art community. I continue to be blown away by the talent here, and how genuinely nice people are. I feel really fortunate that some people like my stuff enough to put it in shows. I’m pretty clueless (about most things) and had no idea who Mera Rubell was until I got the call that she was coming in 2 days. Alberto [her husband] filled me in but I was so distracted by having to spit out some work to show, and freaked out to have to talk about it, that nothing really sank in until about a week later. She was so kind, incredibly insightful and really, just downright cool.
CD: Your most recent show “Empty Time,” curated by local artist Trevor Young has work that is quite different from the work seen a few months back in “Portrait 2.0,” a show curated by Michael Pollack. How did that come about?
VFG: Trevor asked for some images that would fit the theme of the show he was curating. We went back and forth a bit, until he asked for some much quieter images. The one in the show was one of two that I was hoping he’d pick from the that particular shoot.
Victoria F. Gaitán, Untitled, 2009. (“Portrait 2.0″ exhibit)
Victoria F. Gaitán, Untitled, 2010. (“Empty Time” exhibit)
CD: What is in the future for Ms. Gaitán–shows, talks, studio thoughts, etc.?
VFG: There are the two shows running at the moment, ‘Cream’ for the WPA Auction at the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center which runs until March 6th, and ‘Empty Time’ at the Fridge DC gallery which runs until March 3rd. I’ll have about 5-6 photographs in ‘Beautiful’ curated by Joanne Bauer at GRACE that opens on May 1st. I’ll be a contributor to Jeffry Cudlin’s exhibition ‘By Request’ at Flashpoint in late June of this year. Apart from the usual cat wrangling, I’ll keep on turning what used to be a living room into a blackened out hell hole with hot lights, shoot more grizzly scenes, keep on printing out a steady spew of NC-17 images and keeping the Netflix coming.
Victoria F. Gaitán, Hole No. 1, 2009. (“Cream” exhibit)
Victoria F. Gaitán, Hole No. 2, 2009. (“Cream” exhibit)
CD: My last question. What is your favorite color?
VFG: Emerald green.
For more information about Victoria and her work, visit her website and blog.