abstraction
TWO EXHIBITIONS HIGHLIGHT LATINX ARTISTS’ ABSTRACT APPROACH
Two groundbreaking exhibitions currently on view in New York assert the enduring legacy of abstraction among Latinx artists: “Latinx Abstract” at BRIC, curated by Elizabeth Ferrer, and “XX”, at the Manhattan-based LatchKey Gallery. Both exhibitions emphasize, on the one hand, a desire to push against limitations and stereotypical expectations imposed upon Latinx artists, and on the other, the need to reassess the scope and history of abstract art itself.
AGNES PELTON: DESERT TRANSCENDENTALIST
«Desert Transcendentalist» is the first solo exhibition devoted to Agnes Pelton (1881–1961), a pioneer of American abstraction, in twenty-five years. This is a rare opportunity to experience Pelton’s profoundly spiritual body of work and to confirm her place in art history. Pelton received little critical encouragement for her abstract paintings during her lifetime as a result of living away from the mainstream art world for most of her career.
Alejandro Otero:rhythm in Line And Space
Organized in partnership with the Otero Pardo Foundation of Caracas, Venezuela, the exhibition «Alejandro Otero: Rhythm in Line and Space» at Sicardi | Ayers | Bacino highlights works from his «Cafeteras» (Coffeepots), «Tablones» (Planks), and «Coloritmos» (Colorhythms) series, among others, offering a glimpse into the dynamic practice of this master artist (Venezuela, 1921-1990). Although this exhibition cannot show any of these structures on a public scale, except in images, it does exhibit the artist’s preparatory process that gave rise to them. Following a rigorous methodology, Otero, when producing paintings or sculptural works, always began with drawings, sketches or models, before making the final work a reality.
Women Geometers
The exhibition «Women Geometers», organized by the Atchugarry Art Center in association with Piero Atchugarry Gallery summons and celebrates the creations of a significant group of twelve Latin American women pioneers proposing a dialogue that is unique in its genre. From different visions and multiple inquiries, all these pioneers extended the confines of geometric abstraction both in the aesthetic field and in territories of the intersection with realms of knowledge, ranging from mathematics to the philosophy of being and the very connection with the body and the erotic sensitivity.
Jaime Gili:dark Paintings
Jaime Gili’s painting is steeped in the paradox of an abstract practice whose meaning depends largely on referentiality. Despite the artist’s long-term commitment to the mostly flat and broken planes of geometry in an investigation of color that delights in the specificities of materials and technique, Gili’s paintings are mostly discussed in relation to the histories of prewar and postwar geometric abstraction that circulate globally.