Chilean artists

JOHANNA UNZUETA: NATURALIST

In «Naturalist», Johanna Unzueta’s (b. 1974, Santiago, Chile) first solo exhibition at Casey Kaplan, the artist draws from the natural world and the balance between the earth and its living counterparts. In an intimate exploration of her surroundings, Unzueta engages with her Chilean history through its landscape, communities, and labor practices, incorporating organic materials that are indigenous to Latin America.

JORGE TACLA: STAGINGS/ESCENARIOS

Prior to this body of work, Tacla largely excluded the human figure from his paintings, letting buildings and rubble suggest a human presence or intervention. His practice shifted after personally processing images of political rallies in the U.S., Chile, Lebanon and Hong Kong, China, in 2019-20. «October 25, 2019, #4 (2022)» is emblematic of this new mode, depicting some of the estimated 1.2 million protesters that gathered across Chile’s capital, Santiago.

OPEN WOUND. THE MOURNING OF HERNÁN PARADA

Seeing the exhibition, Hernán assures he is moved. He had never seen the material gathered. He further says the image he has of his brother has not changed over time. Within his family they continue to remember him constantly, and in light of events, it seems that Hernán Parada’s work is not only open but is also a way of mourning. “Obrabierta is not closed until Alejandro reappears,” he says firmly.

OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE

In a moment when cryptocurrency has swiftly become a global phenomenon, this exhibition considers the ways in which dematerialized currency and the ostensible abstraction of value still have tangible impacts. Requiring access to the internet, smart devices, and various software and hardware, the digitization of finance is presented as a seamless, worldwide network, but it in fact has roots in both Wall Street and Silicon Valley.

Vista de la exposición “New works for a post-worker’s world”, de Rodrigo Valenzuela, en la sala principal de la Galería Patricia Ready, Santiago de Chile, 2021. Foto cortesía del artista

RODRIGO VALENZUELA: NEW WORKS FOR A POST-WORKER’S WORLD

In their invocation of histories of labor, and of industries created by humans in order to displace themselves in the service of capital, these photographs intersect with the struggles for unionization, a longtime interest for Valenzuela. They stress the body’s worth—both single and collective—as well as that of rest and pleasure.

IGNACIO ACOSTA’S ARCHAEOLOGY OF SACRIFICE

In line with Frederic Jameson’s musings on the relationship between utopia and science fiction, and seeing the latter’s strength in failing to accurately imagine a real future, «Archeology of Sacrifice» similarly plays with our imagination’s incapacity. Global capitalism is once again responsible; we’re frozen within its trap, unable to seek alternatives. Instead of presenting a conclusive vision, the film offers a plethora of prospects which “defamiliarize and restructure our experience of our own present».

BEAUTIFUL DISTRESS: ART AND MENTAL HEALTH. MARTÍN LA ROCHE IN CONVERSATION WITH CAROL STAKENAS

Carol Stakenas, curator at-large for the Social Practices Art Network (SPAN), talks to Chilean Amsterdam-based artist Martín La Roche (1988) about his three-month residency experience at Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn, New York, as part of the Beautiful Distress Foundation (Amsterdam) program, whose mission is to raise awareness of mental distress under the belief that art is pre-eminently capable of articulating and representing the human condition.

ARTISHOCK CELEBRATES ITS 10th ANNIVERSARY WITH SPECIAL ONLINE SALE

This year we celebrate our tenth anniversary with a special online sale that brings together a hundred leading artists from Chile and other Latin American countries. The sale will be online throughout May in the new Artishock store, Artishop, hosted at artishockrevista.com/tienda

Paz Errázuriz: Próceres [National Heroes]

‘Próceres [National Heroes]’ is a newly printed series (2018) that Paz Errázuriz originally took in 1983. Taken in a government run warehouse in Chile, ‘Próceres [National Heroes]’ captures the last evidence of toppled Chilean statues. These monuments had been violently dismantled and damaged during the height of Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship (1974–1990). This exhibition at Cecilia Brunson Projects in London is the first public showing of this series.