AL MARGEN DE LA LUZ: MIGUEL ÁNGEL RÍOS' EXHIBITION

The paintings of Miguel Angel Rios blur the boundaries between reality and imagination resulting in vivid, cryptic and almost unrecognizable self-portraits. Three elements remain present: the face, the hat and the scarf, which move through the different styles the artist goes through.

Al margen de la luz (On the margins of the light) reveals intense colors, with shadows, lights and tonalities that, like a pendulum, travels every stage and intensity. The natural landscapes are also present in the background: the fauna, the foliage of the jungle or the bushes end up composing the self-portraits, placing them in atypical scenarios with a familiar tinge, as if it were a recurring fantasy of the artist himself.

Mariana Camargo, curatorial coordinator, explains: "It is in this sense, the visual elements such as the face, the hat and the scarf are configured in an amalgam of artistic styles, without each element losing its own individual style within a composition that seeks to question the conventions of representation in a world governed by social media, in which identity is characterized by being fixed and immutable. On the margins of the light and shadows in Ríos' visual landscapes, a range of colors is revealed that runs from dark tones to pastels, the fauna that makes itself present through stalking postures and that operate as a reminder, such is the case of the ant that, with a subtle wink, reminds us of Operation Ant that is carried out from hand to hand to cross coca leaves from one territory to another in southern Latin America or the figure of the scorpion that symbolizes the stage of the unconscious, full of imagination and uncertainty".

Miguel Angel Rios' work combines a rigorous conceptual approach with a constructed, often handcrafted aesthetic. From the 1970s to the present, he has produced an important body of work that invites the viewer to embark on a journey through landscape, objects, plants and roots that speak to us of Latin America, but also in which we can see represented global questions and problems that, between the limits and boundaries of the past, make us reflect on power, violence and geopolitics on a symbolic level.

Ríos' production is part of several important collections, among them the Luis Ángel Arango Library (Bogotá, CO); Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Collection (New York, NY); Daros Latinamerica Collection (Zürich, CH); Fundación Arte y Mecenazgo, "la Caixa" (Barcelona, ES); Fundación Costantini, Museo de Arte Latinoamericano (MALBA) (Buenos Aires, ARG); Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (Washington, D.C. ); La Maison Européenne de la Photographie (Paris, FR); Museo Nacional, Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (Madrid, ES); The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH) (Houston, TX); The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) (New York, NY); Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) (Miami, FL); Philadelphia Museum of Art, (Philadelphia, PA), the Phoenix Art Museum (Phoenix, AZ), Museum Contemporary Art of Tokyo (Tokyo, JP), National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (Seoul, KR).

Al margen de la luz. Solo exhibition by Miguel Ángel Ríos.

Until April 2023.

Karen Huber Gallery. Bucareli 120. Colonia Centro, Centro, Cuauhtémoc, 06040 Mexico City, CDMX, Mexico.