“Hazel Florez’ work lives in the world of dream and symbol, element and myth, transporting the viewer into a wild alchemical garden of wondrous creatures and magical objects, transforming into signposts of our cosmic journeys. Hers is an animated dimension filled with lively and fantastic beings, deities, and delightful, big eyed hybrid spirits of plants, moths and unfamiliar spectres.  Florez’ broadly Hermetic framework links the microcosm to the macrocosm, so that each visual element is a portal to something much bigger, hinting at the ways in which our personal lessons and journeys resonate with the universal current.

 

Inspired primarily by Surrealism and painting with a visionary sensibility, Florez recalls the playful otherworldly spaces and entities of Remedios Varo and Leonora Carrington. Yet she also deftly employs the traditional visual language of didactic esoteric art, working with the iconography of alchemy, sacred geometry, tarot, and myth, resulting in a unique pictorial fusion that is both profound and whimsical. Florez’ command of esoteric symbolism suggests that each individual component is charged with meaning, yet the viewer is still invited to find their way through the garden to their own revelation. Hazel Florez lures you into her enchantment, and it is impossible not to surrender." - Dr Amy Hale, writer, curator and critic, 2022.

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BIO

Hazel Florez (b. 1984) is a UK artist based in a London Studio in Hackney. She graduated at Edinburgh University and the Edinburgh college of Art from the MA Fine Art program in 2007. She has a multi-disciplinary background and has degrees in Philosophy and International Politics. She worked as a university tutor before switching to become an artist. She has experimented with a wide range of mediums including oil, acrylic, pen and ink, mixed media collage, costume, dance, performance, photography, installation, and digital art. She has exhibited and performed at a number of venues and galleries including The Holy Art, The Tub Gallery, Purslane, The Vacant Museum, Hackney Downs Studios, and Lauderdale House, and BWG Gallery's group show Spirit Within. Florez has given a lecture with The Jung Club, London, and will be participating in the Magickal Womens Conference in October, 2022. As part of her research and creative process, she has drawn inspiration from alchemical manuscripts at The Ritman Library Online Archive. In August 2021, she completed the Introduction to Western Esotericism: Visions of the Occult, Summer School program at the University of Amsterdam. Hazel is registered on the Art Girl Rising online archive: ‘Here Are The Women Artists’. She is a Bridgeman Studios artist and her images are available for licensing with Bridgeman Images.