Unlayering Intersections of Architectural Intimacy
Reflecting on the work of GeoVanna Gonzalez
with Lauryn Lawrence
"Creating intimate spaces is always an aspect of the work. One way or another, I want it to be inviting enough for people to feel that they can also make the space their own in some way, shape, or form.”
一GeoVanna Gonzalez
Beneath the Sun, Lies the Wisdom Eye. Installation photo courtesy of the artist.
Migrating through memories while reimagining the spaces we occupy is one of many threads in the work of Season Three multidisciplinary artist GeoVanna Gonzalez. GeoVanna is a Los Angeles-born artist based in Miami whose practice combines architecture, performance, and visual documentation.
With the mission of creating familiar, immersive spaces, GeoVanna's work creates layers of architectural intimacy, challenging viewers to reflect on the physical and subconscious spaces that nurture the power of home, memories, and community.
I had the pleasure of speaking with GeoVanna about her recent installation, “Beneath the Sun, Lies the Wisdom Eye,” currently on view within the Alice Coltrane, Monument Eternal group exhibition at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, CA. We discussed spirituality, architectural intimacy, and how her artistic practice has evolved.
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Season Three Artist GeoVanna Gonzalez
Lauryn Lawrence: How do you feel about exhibiting at a museum in your hometown? Can you speak more about your work for the Alice Coltrane, Monument Eternal exhibition?
GeoVanna Gonzalez: It's been amazing. It's a museum I went to as a kid, and I had this moment when I was younger where I was like, “Man, it would be great to show here one day.” It feels like a homecoming for me.
Alice Coltrane influenced the work as a person, spiritual leader, mother, and musician. The house she shared with her husband, John Coltrane, in Dixie Hill, New York, was the basis of my research for this installation. It was used both as a domestic space and as a space for creativity and spirituality. At the time, they both started to get into Eastern spirituality.
I began looking into Eastern spiritual architectural spaces, and there are many different philosophies on how to create them. However, they all follow a specific geometry or system. One of them is called the Four Noble Truths, which essentially has four entry points into the building一four sets of steps around a centralized platform inside. This is what my [installation] is based on. It utilizes this formula or thought process representing the main elements一water, fire, earth, and air一with the center as space.
The structure's color is orange, which is a direct reference to Alice Coltrane. She wore orange for the rest of her life following John’s passing as part of her devotion to becoming a spiritual leader.
Alice Coltrane, c. 1978. Courtesy of the John & Alice Coltrane Home
New World School of the Arts students visit ‘Flowing Pathways,’ GeoVanna’s temporary outdoor installation with Museum of Art + Design at Miami-Dade College, Wolfson Campus. Photo by Victoria Jubes
LL: What do you consider when combining architecture, performance, and visual documentation?
GG: There are a lot of intuitive decisions, but at the same time, I’m thinking about the specificity, the space, and the site. I’m also thinking about the community it serves一what do I want it to achieve? How can I imagine people connecting with the work? I don’t think of this as storytelling but rather remembering, which is a significant aspect of the work.
Looking back at things or reimagining how something can be is important, as well as examining the element of intimacy within architecture. Architecture can be so many things—invisible or temporary—like the architecture of the mind. Creating these intimate spaces is always central to the work.
One way or another, I want whatever I create to be inviting enough for people to feel they can make the space their own in some way, shape, or form.
When We Open Every Window movement artists. Photo by Andrea Lorena
LL: I would love to reflect on When We Open Every Window (2020), your first commission with Commissioner, in relation to your work now. Are there any connections?
GG: At the end of the day, all of my work is in conversation and interconnected in one way or another, even if the concepts are different. The work for Commissioner was specifically thinking about the domestic space: my great-grandmother's house initially inspired it. There’s an ongoing connection regarding the domestic space as a point of inspiration. Then and now, I am thinking about nurture, intimacy, community, and inhabitation.
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Having crossed paths with GeoVanna at many points in my career, this interview was somewhat of a homecoming for me. I was first introduced to her work in 2021, and it inspired me to review my own memories through a tender lens. Her mission to address history, memory, and the communities we serve has provided a foundation for navigating my intersectional practice of identity exploration. Through the work of GeoVanna, I challenge viewers and readers alike to reflect on intimate spaces and ask how you honor your memories and community.
Alice Coltrane, Monument Eternal at The Hammer is organized by Erin Christovale, curator, with Nyah Ginwright, curatorial assistant. The exhibition will be on view through May 4, 2025.
About GeoVanna Gonzalez
GeoVanna Gonzalez’s work engages in a multifaceted practice encompassing performance, installation, sculpture, and moving image. Over the course of her artistic journey, she has cultivated an approach centered around the interplay between the live body, spatial dynamics, and sculptural elements. Her artistic endeavors are driven by a desire to forge connections between private and public realms, achieved through interventionist and participatory art that places an emphasis on collaboration and collectivity. A thematic underpinning of Gonzalez’s work revolves around exploring the fluid landscapes of gender and identity, as well as delving into the realms of intimacy and proximity.
GeoVanna’s work has been featured in solo exhibitions at Museum of Art and Design, Miami (2024), Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, Buffalo (2024), Locust Projects, Miami (2021), Grund Gallery, Berlin (2019). She has participated in group exhibitions at MCA Denver (2024), Untitled Art Fair (2023), ICA Miami (2022), Station Museum of Contemporary Art, Houston (2021), Fringe Projects (2021), Emerson Dorsch, Miami (2021), NSU Art Museum, Fort Lauderdale (2020), Spinello Projects, Miami (2020). Gonzalez has received residencies at MASS MoCA, North Adams (2024), Campo AIR, Uruguay, (2022), Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Omaha (2022), Franconia Sculpture Park Residency, Minnesota (2022), Santa Fe Art Institute Residency, Santa Fe (2022), Fountainhead, Miami, (2020), Ellipsis Open School, Portugal (2019), Oolite Arts, Miami (2017-2018). Her honors and awards include a Third Horizon Fellowship (2024), Southern Prize & State Fellowship (2022), Art and Public Places (2019 & 2021), Wavemaker grant from Andy Warhol Foundation and Locust Projects (2021), The South Florida Cultural Consortium (2020), The Ellies visual art award by Oolite Arts (2020 & 2018). Gonzalez received her BFA at Otis College of Art and Design (2011).
About Lauryn Lawrence
Jamaican and Dominican-American Lauryn Lawrence is an artist and curator whose work examines her experiences as an Afro-Latina intersectional feminist. Lawrence was born in South Florida, where she currently resides. Lawrence emphasizes capturing representations of intersectional communities in society and paying attention to the relationship between people and their spaces. Her curatorial work seeks to bridge gaps by engaging with artists who reflect on the Black, Latin, and Caribbean aesthetic through the lens of the immigrant experience in North America. Lawrence earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Art and Art History alongside a Visual Production Certificate from the Florida International University in 2021 and a Master's degree in Museums, Galleries, and Contemporary Culture from the University of Westminster in London in 2023, which helped shaped her curatorial practice by deepening her understanding of how cultural institutions shape, fund, and disseminate culture. Her studies focused on the changing role of cultural provision and theoretical museum and gallery issues. Returning to Miami, Lawrence now works at the Museum of Art and Design at Miami Dade College and joined the Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator (DVCAI) as an Archivist Curatorial Fellow.
This is story was gently edited by Adaeze Nwakobi.