NYAB Event - Muñoz Vicuña “Pliegue Y Despliegue”

Muñoz Vicuña “Pliegue Y Despliegue”

gallery nine 5

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Marking the Chilean artist’s debut in North America, gallery nine5 presents its first exhibition of Ignacio Muñoz Vicuña’s newest body of work, Pliegue Y Despliegue (Folding and Unfolding). The latest of his sculptural paintings, Pliegue Y Despliegue speaks not only to the literal physical process of his piece’s creation, but also to the discovery of paint’s inherent characteristics.

The culmination of a three-year long exploratory process, the exhibition presents works that continue to build upon the artist’s fascination with anatomical construction. Vicuña creates a fluid body, bending and stretching a skin of acrylic paint across stretcher bars of bone. The dynamism of his vivid paintings mimics his method: at once carefully designed and instantaneously manufactured.

Working through his nostalgia for the formal quality of painting borne of an increasingly digital landscape, Vicuña’s textile-like works remind the viewer of the tangibility of paint as a medium, upending its state as a device drained of all its vicissitude. His pieces extend out into the viewing sphere, creating an acute awareness of space and volume, unfolding the true abilities of paint to “fill” a canvas.

Color is integral to the planning of his works. Drawing on his architectural training, the artist begins his process with a sketch of his chosen color-inspired vision. In the finished works, movement represents the personalities of their colors. Viridian, a rich matte green, exudes a quiet dominance with simple and unadorned drapes that fall majestically across the piece. Bermellon’s frame is playfully exposed in shocking pink. The single reflective silvery sheet of Plateado is laid gently across a framework of small squares, tucked around corners and joints. Dual, which represents Vicuña’s first ever foray into the draping of two separate colors, wrestles between the heaviness of deep purple and lightness of silver to present a harmonious whole.

The rhythmic ritual of his method teases out the purest aspects of the medium, from its structured conception to its uncontrollable execution. With simultaneous appreciation and manipulation, Vicuña molds his capricious tools into exquisitely contained squares of fluidity.

Born and raised in Santiago, Chile, Vicuña holds degrees and certifications in Architecture, Gastronomy, Visual Arts, and Illustration and Graphic Narration. In 2011, he was the artist-in- residence at BLOC in Santiago, Chile. Vicuña has exhibited extensively throughout Chile and South America. His work is held in monumental Chilean collections, including at the Museum of Contemporary Chilean Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art of Valdivia, and in public parks. Awards include first place for Urban Art from the Chilean Foundation of Culture and Artists of the 21st Century from Central Extension Catholic University.

[Image: Muñoz Vicuña “Amarillo” Acrylic on stretcher bars, 59 x 59 in.]