G A L E R I A M A N G O S T A
23 June – 31 July 2011 402 Muñoz Rivera Ave
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Galeria Mangosta is pleased to present Waiting room: a history of doing nothing and a long tale of useful action. Looking at the pivotal role of art-fabricating in current practice, the exhibition features 6 works ranging from sculpture and installations to film and painting. San Juan based artist Guillermo E. Rodriguez Rivera has been invited to curate and fabricate works by some of the most significant young artists working today.
The exhibition, which takes its title from a song on Fugazi’s self titled album (Dischord, 1988) and the verbose essay "The Good of Work" by the British artist Liam Gillick, features work by Javier Bosques, Noi Fuhrer, Melvin Martinez, Emmie Mcluskey and Jamie Green, presented alongside a cohesive body of work by Rodriguez.
Waiting room... presents physical artworks realised in an overt liaison with performance. Each work involves objects that relate or refer to particular uses in everyday life, yet levitates the ordinary through the injection of provocative, charming and metaphorically charged approaches. These objects, in their physical presence or as central ‘characters’ in video and photographic documentations or films, imply or explicitly solicit possible uses, gestures or physical engagement. The promising relationship between sculpture and performance is explored by all artists with a playful and often ironic critical stance that subverts the common uses, references or shapes of the objects brought into play or referred to.
The artists move effortlessly between formats: As the films act as a visible transcription of the passing of time, so the sculptures represent a material translation of an idea, something the artists have also explored in numerous occasions. While the sculptures, affixed or simply leaning against the walls, are the most obvious reiterations of the fabrication process among custom built projector screens and commissioned pictures, the curator’s (partial or total) fabrication of all the pieces in Waiting room... is the thread that holds together an incoherent, if not completely disjointed exhibition. The works are connected by a system of loose associations, reflected in formal and whimsical relations: the choices made are simultaneously well informed and spontaneous, avoiding the obvious path for the one that feels instinctively right.
About the artists: As mutual friends of the curator/fabricator, artists in this exhibition do not share a passion for found images, football, word-play and the belief that the best ideas are generated around the dining table1.
1 This press release partially copies fragments from Scott Rothkopf’s arcicle from Artforum Magazine’s ‘The Art of Production’ issue (Rothkopf, S. “The Art of Production.” Artforum October 2007: p. 304- 305), White Cube Gallery’s press release for 'Kupferstichkabinett: Between Thought and Action' (http://www.whitecube.com/exhibitions/Kupferstichkabinett/) and Lisson Gallery’s press releases for 'Double Act Repeated' and 'Lisson Presents 4 and 7' (http://www.lissongallery.com).
For press enquiries please contact freddy.balston@mangosta-pr.com | + (787) 445 2020 For image requests please contact illfantocce@galeriamangosta.com | + (787) 445 3052
G A L E R I A M A N G O S T A
23 June – 31 July 2011 402 Muñoz Rivera Ave
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Galeria Mangosta is pleased to present Waiting room: a history of doing nothing and a long tale of useful action. Looking at the pivotal role of art-fabricating in current practice, the exhibition features 6 works ranging from sculpture and installations to film and painting. San Juan based artist Guillermo E. Rodriguez Rivera has been invited to curate and fabricate works by some of the most significant young artists working today.
The exhibition, which takes its title from a song on Fugazi’s self titled album (Dischord, 1988) and the verbose essay "The Good of Work" by the British artist Liam Gillick, features work by Javier Bosques, Noi Fuhrer, Melvin Martinez, Emmie Mcluskey and Jamie Green, presented alongside a cohesive body of work by Rodriguez.
Waiting room... presents physical artworks realised in an overt liaison with performance. Each work involves objects that relate or refer to particular uses in everyday life, yet levitates the ordinary through the injection of provocative, charming and metaphorically charged approaches. These objects, in their physical presence or as central ‘characters’ in video and photographic documentations or films, imply or explicitly solicit possible uses, gestures or physical engagement. The promising relationship between sculpture and performance is explored by all artists with a playful and often ironic critical stance that subverts the common uses, references or shapes of the objects brought into play or referred to.
The artists move effortlessly between formats: As the films act as a visible transcription of the passing of time, so the sculptures represent a material translation of an idea, something the artists have also explored in numerous occasions. While the sculptures, affixed or simply leaning against the walls, are the most obvious reiterations of the fabrication process among custom built projector screens and commissioned pictures, the curator’s (partial or total) fabrication of all the pieces in Waiting room... is the thread that holds together an incoherent, if not completely disjointed exhibition. The works are connected by a system of loose associations, reflected in formal and whimsical relations: the choices made are simultaneously well informed and spontaneous, avoiding the obvious path for the one that feels instinctively right.
About the artists: As mutual friends of the curator/fabricator, artists in this exhibition do not share a passion for found images, football, word-play and the belief that the best ideas are generated around the dining table1.
1 This press release partially copies fragments from Scott Rothkopf’s arcicle from Artforum Magazine’s ‘The Art of Production’ issue (Rothkopf, S. “The Art of Production.” Artforum October 2007: p. 304- 305), White Cube Gallery’s press release for 'Kupferstichkabinett: Between Thought and Action' (http://www.whitecube.com/exhibitions/Kupferstichkabinett/) and Lisson Gallery’s press releases for 'Double Act Repeated' and 'Lisson Presents 4 and 7' (http://www.lissongallery.com).
For press enquiries please contact freddy.balston@mangosta-pr.com | + (787) 445 2020 For image requests please contact illfantocce@galeriamangosta.com | + (787) 445 3052