"Material Breach" Exhibition
(Art) Amalgamated
This event has ended.
In conjunction with Carnegie Hall’s Voices of Latin America Festival, Material Breach brings together a group of Latin American artists whose work transforms the utility of commonplace domestic or creative materials, divesting them of their prescribed functionality in ways that generate new meaning and new sets of cultural and political associations.
Besides the lyrical materials that ground the exhibition, a unifying curatorial theory is the concept of “tout-monde” by Martinique born writer and philosopher Éoudard Glissont. Glissont thought of a Caribbean archipelago as the ideal geography where interconnection and physical proximity could foster a sense of integration, while individual islands maintained a unique culture.
Bringing together artists that have a respectful and unique way of working with their chosen materials, we see the “tout” -- the whole -- creating a dialog between each of their work without marginalizing the individual artist. Hovering between representational and abstract, the artworks in Material Breach reward the viewer for exploring the liminal space between fleeting recognition and detailed observation. Moving from artwork to artwork, we experience the individual substance of each piece while an underlying sensibility connects them all to a Latin American, as well as an international, cultural dialog.
Héctor Arce-Espasas’s (b. 1982, San Juan, Puerto Rico) artwork incorporates images that have a historic connection to the tropics and colonial history. A repeated theme of palms and pineapples allude to the islands and the exotic, while infusing and supporting them with the physicality of clay.
Yoan Capote (b. 1977, Pinar del Río, Cuba) was initially trained as a painter, but moved on to sculptural, three dimensional works as the clearest expression of his vision. The concrete sculptures in the exhibition represent the friction, interactions and gossip that supplies the dynamic flow of energy that permeate the local communities of Cuba.
Héctor Madera (b. 1977, Bayamón, Puerto Rico) uses disparate range of materials like paper, tape and found images to create artworks that layer the mass media images with mixed media to bring to light new associations. Artworks in the exhibition feature enlarged photographs of modern European masters like Picasso and Dalí which are covered by layers of tape. Obscuring the image of the artist with versions of Mexican wresting hoods, expresses the sublimation of the European master into the local culture, like another international import.
José Lerma (b. 1971, Seville, Spain) and Héctor Madera have been recently collaborating on creating site specific, monumental sculptures. At (Art) Amalgamated, a bust of Lord Lansdowne, the 20th century pioneer of showmanship and theatricality in ‘professional wrestling’, is rendered in ‘bags’ of crushed backdrop paper.
Iran do Espírito Santo (b. 1963, Mococa, Brazil) uses minimalist sculptural works to explore the notions of location, commodity, utility and materials. In the Globes series, ubiquitous lampshades are rendered in historically luxurious material of marble, subtly highlighting the overlooked objects that populate our lives.
Media
Schedule
from November 14, 2012 to December 15, 2012
Opening Reception on 2012-11-15 from 18:00 to 20:00