Piero Atchugarry Gallery, 3 shows, “Room for Failure”,”What I really want to tell you”, by THE55 PROJECT, and “Wifredo Lam: sus años en Cuenca”, Miami 2019

Piero Atchugarry Gallery,

3 shows, “Room for Failure”. “What I really want to tell you”, by THE55 PROJECT, and “Wifredo Lam: sus años en Cuenca”, Miami 2019

“Room for Failure”

Room for Failure is a group exhibition about the thought process and connection that exists between the mental space of the creator and the end result (the artwork)—the subjective versus the objective. It is often associated with the simple action of defeat, collapse, and non-success. Although “failure” has a negative connotation and it is read as a condition of not meeting a desirable objective, it often translates as a human, poetic, and magical moment that leads to triumph. The sixteen artists in this exhibition tend to function outside the norm of artmaking, where concepts charged with political, social, and personal histories collide with the use of unusual materials. The performative and the presence of the body bridge the soul to a particular moment in time.

ektor garcía’s mis manos crean lo que soy was produced in Guadalajara for the show Oficio y Materia at the Museo de Arte de Zapopan (MAZ). The piece is presented as an installation with multiple elements, such as ceramics and fabric, which evoke a chaotic universe that is, in fact, a reflection of the artist’s mind. It serves as a psychological self-portrait of time lived yet failing to be defined.

André Komatsu will exhibit three works that have been produced and chosen in conversation with the theme of the exhibition and carefully selected for the gallery space. These works serve as a metaphor for failed political systems in Latin America, a prevalent and seemingly recurrent condition since the postcolonial period. A bent iron bar supported on the wall by small nails confronts and engages the viewer with fragility and tension, akin to the precarity of the diverse systems throughout the region. In another work, orchestrated with cement bags deliberately and symmetrically ordered on the floor, the artist exposes and displays their contents through geometric incisions.

The Israeli artist Nahum Tevet‘s works from the 1970s to the present explore the disintegration and deconstruction of space and systems, using minimalism as a point of departure. For Room for Failure, Nahum will contribute a recent wall sculpture that is structurally complex and, while seemingly confusing, the very composition fails to “read.“

These three artists are exemplary of some strategies and interpretations of “failure” among the many other participating artists, including: Carmen Argote, William Cordova, Eugenio Espinoza, Cristian Franco, Dorian Gaudin, David Ireland, Pooneh Maghazehe, Guadalupe Maravilla, Michail Michailov, Irini Miga, Gabriel Rico, Martha Tuttle, and Sergio Vega.

Piero Atchugarry Gallery web site

, “What I really want to tell you” | Atchugarry Art Center

Curated by Jennifer Inacio with Flávia Macuco Pecego this exhibition explores the cultural, social and political histories of Brazil. The participating artists question these issues and externalize their examinations through art that impact, inspire and engage, becoming their own manifestos of exploration, interrogation, and change. While responding to our contemporary moment, the exhibition highlights ways in which art stimulates and inform new ideas in times of divergent realities.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

The exhibition features 14 Brazilian artists:⠀⠀⠀⠀

Almandrade • Jonathas de Andrade • Liene Bosquê • Paulo Bruscky • Anna Bella Geiger • Rubens Gerchman • Ivan Grilo • Randolpho Lamonier • Vanderlei Lopes • Gabriela Mutti • Paulo Nazareth • Regina Parra • Rosana Paulino • Mano Penalva

Hosted by: Fundacion Pablo Atchugarry | 5520 NE 4th Ave, Miami

Wifredo Lam: sus años en Cuenca

Los años formativos de un gran artista resultan periodos fascinantes para los coleccionistas y los historiadores del arte. Son esos años los que dan como resultado piezas que aportan luz acerca de los diferentes elementos que conforman el lenguaje de un creador. Piero Atchugarry Gallery, en Little River, está presentando hasta mediados de mayo una exhibición muy singular. Se trata de un conjunto de pinturas que datan del periodo entre 1925 y 1927, en el cual Wifredo Lam (Cuba, 1902-1982) pasó temporadas en la localidad castellana de Cuenca.

Lam había llegado a España en 1923, concretamente a Madrid. La que calculaba sería una corta estancia, en camino hacia París, se prolongó durante 15 años. Había ganado una beca para estudiar en Europa gracias a los primeros reconocimientos a su trabajo en su país natal. Traía consigo una carta de recomendación de Antonio Rodríguez Morey, quien en aquel entonces era director del Museo de Bellas Artes de La Habana, que le abriría las puertas de los círculos intelectuales madrileños.

Durante los primeros años en Madrid asiste a la Real Academia de Bellas Artes, específicamente a las clases de Fernando Álvarez de Sotomayor, director del Museo del Prado y reputado retratista. Sin embargo, a Lam no le satisfizo la formación academicista y el idealismo clásico que allí se promulgaba. Por ello, decidió matricular en la Academia Libre de Arte que había fundado Julio Moisés donde entró en contacto con las nuevas ideas y tendencias del arte moderno. Entre los estudiantes se encontraban también Benjamín Palencia, José Moreno Villa y Salvador Dalí, entre otros discípulos que más tarde destacarían como artistas de vanguardia.