Victoria Febrer: The Art of Vinography

Born in New York in 1985, Victoria Febrer has earned international recognition for her paintings and vinography, producing unique images with red wine using a technique developed by the artist herself.

We sit down with Victoria to learn about her surprising technique.

1. What is vinography?

Vinography is the name that I have given to the variety of methods I have developed to create artwork using red wine. It is a combination of many artistic techniques that I have adapted for use with wine—a very difficult material to control.

2. Are there any precedents?

To the best of my knowledge, I am the only artist who has developed different techniques for working with wine other than applying it with a brush. With vinography, I am able to control the wine in order to achieve a greater range of effects, from very fine and precise lines to wide areas of solid color and a great variety of different textures.

Luis Casanova Sorolla (http://www.casanovasorolla.net/96211/bio) produces beautiful work using watercolor techniques with both red and white wines.

3. How did you first develop an interest in this technique?

About 8 years ago, as a student at Cooper Union, I started experimenting with using red wine to create images. I was exploring iconic representations of women at the time and was searching for a medium that would enhance the images. Wine, being at once ubiquitous and conceptually rich with associations to divinity, fertility, abundance, rebirth, and life was the perfect material for this task.

4. What wine do you use and what are your criteria for choosing one wine over another?

I am constantly trying out new wines and exploring the range of colors that I can achieve with vinography. Tones range from reds to browns, to purples, to pinks and vary widely in intensity. Since new colors result from variations in the grapes, the soil, the weather, and the winemaking process, I have to keep trying different wines in order to expand my palette.

5. Do you work with any Torres wines? Nothing would please us more than having one of our wines serve as the basis for one of your artworks...

Of course! I love to use Spanish wines because they allow me to create a connection to the land of my ancestors even though I am working in my studio in New York. I am lucky to be able to find a range of Spanish wines in the local wine shops.

6. Could you briefly explain the process to us?

At this link, you can view a mini-documentary about my technique, vinography https://vimeo.com/65788581

I like to consider the techniques I use in relation to the development of artistic techniques in prehistory. The oldest surviving work of art made by a human being was created by placing a hand on a wall of a cave and spraying pigment around it. When the hand was removed, it left a permanent record of the artist. I frequently apply the wine by spraying or splashing it while my hand or other stencils are in place. Another stencil-based way to create images is by using a silkscreen. I have been able to use techniques I’ve developed with silkscreen with red wine to create a wide variety of lines, tones and textures.

Prehistoric artists also applied pigment directly to the hand or to other objects and then stamped them onto various surfaces. They also sometimes created artwork by cutting incisions into rock or wood. I use stamping methods including the use of my hands, plants, and also hand carved blocks and copper plate etchings I create. I am very interested in the way that images change through printings and also by being placed in different contexts.

Though I use many methods derived from printmaking, each image is unique and cannot be repeated.

7. Is there any one variety in particular that you like to work with because it contains high levels of coloring compounds?

To create my artwork, I require a great range of intensities of color, so I maintain a varied palette in my studio by experimenting with different wines.

8. What special characteristics does wine offer that you do not find in paint?

I am drawn to the way that the images made with red wine exist within the paper and not just on the surface. This gives a mysterious effect to the many layers that make up each image. The wine is not an easy material to work with and I really enjoy the challenge of trying to control it, while at the same time letting the unexpected things that happen inform the work that I create.

9. It is surprising that the pigment obtained from grape skins makes for an enduring artwork. What makes this possible?

The color of the wine is extremely long lasting. The scientist Dr. Patrick E. McGovern, at the University of Pennsylvania, studies the history of wine and there is very interesting information on his web page. His laboratory has discovered the oldest residues of red wine—from the Early Neolithic Period, 7,000 years ago! http://www.penn.museum/sites/biomoleculararchaeology/

10. When contemplating your vinographs, one gets the feeling of being in the presence of something ancient, atavistic, that takes us back to our remote past. Something about the work connects us to the earth and conveys a sense of warmth, an organic quality... Was this your intention or it is an inherent characteristic of the material itself?

My work has always been conceptually centered on an investigation of memory and of the relationship between the personal and the universal. Red wine is the material reflection of these concepts.

11. Records show that Neolithic man already knew how to make "wine." What, in your opinion, is the secret behind wine's ability to transcend time and persist throughout human history?

I believe that this secret lies in the ability of wine to connect us to both our personal memories and to the history of humanity, which is what my artwork aims to do as well. Wine achieves this through the role it has played in history, religion and ritual and in our personal histories together with its material qualities of color, texture, aroma, taste, and the sensations it produces. The physical and cultural attributes of wine come together to provoke a strong connection to our personal and universal histories.

12. Are you a wine lover, Victoria?

I hope that that is already clear from my works…

13. And...a fan of Torres?

In the summer of 2010, I had the pleasure of meeting Miguel and Waltraud Torres at a concert at the Castle of Milmanda in Tarragona province. I appreciate the great work of the Torres Foundation in support of culture.

14. In closing, would you like to recommend a Bodegas Torres wine to the members of our community that would pair well with your work?

Since, just like works of art, different wines recall different sensations and memories in each individual, I would recommend that each person experiment with different combinations of wines and vinographs.

I also invite you all to enjoy a good wine while viewing the first vinographic video, “Untitled Promise” which I’ve created in collaboration with the filmmaker Pedro J. Padilla. https://vimeo.com/63131392 On the nights of June 7th and 8th, the video will e projected onto the walls of the town of Alys Beach, Florida as part of the Digital Graffiti international video art festival. http://www.digitalgraffiti.com/sb1/.

Thank you for your time, Victoria. We'll be following your work!

If you would like to see Victoria in action, make sure to watch this fascinating documentary: https://vimeo.com/65788581

Find out more about Victoria Febrer and her work at: http://www.victoriafebrer.com