About

“Victoria Mimiaga is a painter who gives depth to anything she depicts on canvas—figures of animals and people; still lifes; landscapes. She is a bold colorist in her representational works … Her post-modern works challenge the viewer head-on. She comments on the all too human ironies of consumer culture using the same skills she brings to her representational works. So when I stand facing her “Seated Woman with Cheetos and Soda” I see some of Sargent’s elegance and some of Bacon’s ferocity.”
John Leonard, Marinscope, April 6, 2011

“Victoria Mimiaga’s oil paintings of food—vegetables, candy, even raw meat—are colorful, beautifully rendered still lifes that makes the reader want to eat them. Equal parts impressionist and realist, the paintings have a Wayne Thiebaud quality in their exaggerated colors and features that make them alluring.”
“Unwrap Before Eating” by Keith Bowers
SF Weekly Calendar, December 20 2010

Artist Statement

“Painting for me is like solving a problem or a riddle. I look at a California landscape and wonder how to paint it. It is already so perfect, so beautiful. How do you paint what you see and feel? How do you paint atmosphere? The discipline of painting is for me full of technical challenges and emotional mysteries. I don’t want to paint a postcard.

I like to paint fruits and vegetables, especially pears because of their beautiful color and human shape. I love to discover beauty in everything, even the mundane.

Sometimes a subject just calls to you, reaches out and asks to be painted. Once I walked through the Mill Valley Market and was almost assaulted by a Mother’s Day Cake. It stopped me in my tracks.

The idea for “Food in Plastic” came to me in a similar way. I heard the idea before I saw it. I realized that plastic would be fun to paint, as it would make the fruits and vegetables more interesting. To me plastic has a kind of ghostly aesthetic. It imprisons the food, makes it claustrophobic, even a little sad, yet when light reflects on the surface it creates a sparkly beauty.

I am beginning to explore a new series, where I show how we behave when our inhibitions are down, how cocktails are at the beginning of new and interesting human behavior. The imagery of these paintings suggests the details: where you are, and what you’re drinking, tells the story.
I also like to explore reflection, both man-made and in nature. Reflection mocks and mirrors us, turning everything into its opposite.

Many artists have inspired me. I admire Sorrolla and Sargent for their mastery, their amazing color and brushwork, how they simplify so beautifully. I am also inspired by contemporary artists. Randall Sexton makes the paint dance, and uses wonderful calligraphy; I like Brian Blood’s loose style and juicy colors.

I want to carve out images in my work, like a sculptor. I love color and like to move it around. I’m always trying to create a glow. I want the work to resonate. If I do it right, there is almost a sound, a hum.”
Victoria Mimiaga, 2013

Bio

Victoria Mimiaga, a San Francisco Bay Area artist, was born and raised in Honolulu. She has a B. S. Degree from the University of Colorado in Boulder. She studied art at the Honolulu Academy of Art, the Academy of Art University in San Francisco and the College of Marin in Kentfield.

After a career as a jewelry and textile designer, Victoria became a full-time painter. She has exhibited her work at Studio Gallery, Telegraph Hill Gallery and SF MOMA Artists Gallery in San Francisco. Her solo exhibition, “Food in Plastic,” was held at Café Museo at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. It chronicled the vast array of needless, redundant and amusing plastic receptacles used in packaging food.

She has attended master workshops from a variety of artists, including Jove Wang, Randall Sexton, Peggy Kroll Roberts and Skip Whitcomb. Her work has been reviewed in SF Weekly, Victoria Magazine, Marinscope and California Home and Design.

Victoria is a member of the California Art Club, Oil Painters of America and BayWood Artists in Sausalito. Her full-time studio is at Mill Valley Lumber, 129 Miller Ave. #621 Mill Valley Ca 94941 She lives with her family in Mill Valley, CA.