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July 1, 1998 - September 12, 1998
Am.ne.sia 1: loss of memory due usu. to brain injury, shock, fatigue, repression, or illness 2: a gap in one's memory 3: the selective overlooking or ignoring of those events or acts that are not favorable or useful to one's purpose or position
PRESS RELEASE
Amnesia is an exhibition of contemporary art from South America curated by Christopher Grimes, to be presented jointly at the Christopher Grimes Gallery and Track 16 Gallery from July 1st through September 12th, 1998. There will be an opening reception on July 1st at both galleries.
This exhibition will present artists from Venezuela, Colombia, Argentina, and Brazil and will explore current artistic, political and cultural discourses taking place in South America. The curatorial thesis is not limited to a specific theme, nor to geography, but rather to the curator's recent travels and investigations of contemporary artists in South America. Amnesia will focus on artists working in South America, but will also include those whose origins are based in South America but are producing work in other parts of the world. The resulting exhibition will be influenced by the culture and the history of the continent, and the viewer will be called upon to draw his or her own conclusions regarding the links or cultural bridges between the diverse countries represented.
As the title suggests, Amnesia will explore the idea of South America as a forgotten continent within the context of a Western art world, and how issues are still formed, shaped and processed through a colonial history. The exhibition will also take on the idea of the human condition through artworks that serve to evoke memory and the complexities of the psyche, as well as issues of life, death, and the temporal nature of our anatomy. Amnesia will be framed within a formal, socio-political, post-modern ideal.
All of the art that will be exhibited in Amnesia will be current work, and the sixteen artists represented will comprise a cross-section of younger, less-recognized artists and more established, well-known artists. The selection was subjective and based on the personal experiences of the curator and conversations he had with various South American curators, critics, writers, and artists. Amnesia will play an important role as the first major introduction of many of these artists to an international audience.
A fully illustrated catalogue will be published by Smart Art Press which will document the exhibition, in addition to informing the reader about contemporary art issues in South America. Some of the foremost scholars and critics writing about art in South America will be contributing essays to the bilingual catalogue.
Artists: Waltercio Caldas, Ernesto Neto, Miguel Rio Branco, Valeska Soares, Tunga, José Gabriel Fernández, José Antonio Hernández-Diez, Alfredo Ramírez, Roberto Obregón, Miguel Angel Ríos, Mónica Giron, Marcelo Pombo, Pablo Siquier, Sergio Vega, Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle, Oscar Muñoz.
Writers: Monica Amor, Curator/Writer and Editorial Advisor for the U.S. for Art Nexus; Dan Cameron, Senior Curator for The New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York; Charles Merewether, Curator of The Getty Research Institute for Art History and Humanities; Adriano Pedrosa, Adjunct Curator, XXIV Bienal de Sao Paulo; Tunga, artist and writer.
Exhibition Schedule:
July 1 - September 12, 1998 Track 16 Gallery and Christopher Grimes Gallery, Santa Monica, California
January 23 - March 28, 1999, The Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, Ohio
April 21 - June 27, 1999 Biblioteca Luis ngel Arango, Bogota Colombia
2000 - University of South Florida Contemporary Art Museum, Tampa, Florida