MIAMI ART WEEK – GONZALO FUENMAYOR’S PALINDROMES IN DOT FIFTYONE GALLERY
Opening tomorrow, December 3rd, the fourth solo exhibition of Fuenmayor at the Miami-based gallery features a selection of small and monumental works in charcoal produced during 2020. “Palindromes” represents Fuenmayor’s “latest investigations into how images can speak to the dynamics of performing identity, negotiating cultural expectations, address histories of colonial exploitation and unpack tropical self-exotification. These reoccurring interests are particularly addressed in his practice to a pan-Latin American and U.S. Latinx context” according to curator Tobias Ostrander’s text.
Ostrander expands, “Often incorporating text, literature and filmic references, the artist’s choice of title for the current exhibition nods to these creative resources. “Palindromes” are words that can be read both backwards and forwards and are referenced here in order to suggest that certain images might be understood as functioning in similarly multi-directional ways, contingent on who is interacting with them; how one’s own subjectivity, cultural background and history inform our reading. Palindromes is also the title of a series of works that reveal new and intriguing formal explorations being pursued by the artist currently.”
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Gonzalo Fuenmayor - The Eucharist of Amnesia, 2020 - Charcoal and spray paint on paper - 95 x 208 inches
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Gonzalo Fuenmayor - The politics of forgetting, 2020 - Charcoal on paper - 84 x 144 inches
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Gonzalo Fuenmayor - Allegiance to complexity, 2020 - Charcoal on paper - 30 x 22.5 inches
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Gonzalo Fuenmayor - Recompence for Silence, 2020 - Charcoal and spray paint on paper - 30 x 22.5 inches
“Spray paint is engaged by Fuenmayor for the first time, creating a diversity of black and white gestural marks that add new depth and complexity to these compositions” remarks curator Tobias Ostrander. “While all of the artist’s images and textures are produced directly on the paper, he thinks of these works as functioning more like collages than drawings, a distinction that is further supported by his disjunctive use of imagery. His odd figurative juxtapositions also give the works with their surreal and uncanny character.”
In some of these recent works as in several of his previous pieces, Fuenmayor includes his iconic palace interiors and opulent chandeliers. Gonzalo Fuenmayor has been concerned about the effects of modernization and progress not only on natural environments, but mostly on Latin American culture and its ways of being displayed internationally through stereotypes and common places. His aim seems to be not exclusively to denounce banalization, but also to understand its aesthetic mechanisms and cultural power.
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Gonzalo Fuenmayor - Botanic truth, 2020 - Charcoal and spray paint on paper - 30 x 22.5 inches
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Gonzalo Fuenmayor - Endurance of an insult, 2020 - Charcoal and spray paint on paper - 30 x 22.5 inches
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Gonzalo Fuenmayor - That’s all folks, 2020 - Charcoal and ink on paper - 30 x 22.5 inches
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Gonzalo Fuenmayor - The subtleties that arise from repetition, 2020 - Charcoal and spray paint on paper - 30 x 22.5 inches
Gonzalo Fuenmayor (b. 1977, Barranquilla, Colombia) is a Miami-based artist working primarily with drawing. This year, one of his works was nominated in PArC – Perú Arte Contemporáneo- for the annual acquisition EFG Latin America Art Award (READ MORE). Also, Gonzalo has exhibited in numerous solo and group shows in USA, Latin America and Europe. His work was recently showcased in The Florida Prize 2018, Orlando Museum of Art, Orlando; a solo exhibition “Tropical Mythologies” at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in 2015; “Caribbean Crossroads," at the Queens Museum, NY; as well as recent solo shows at Dot Fiftyone Gallery in 2018 and Dolby Chadwick Gallery in San Francisco, in 2016.
Gonzalo Fuenmayor, Palindromes - The Trailer from DOTFIFTYONE.GALLERY on Vimeo.
Founded in 2002 by its current directors, Isaac Perelman and Alfredo Guzmán, Dot Fiftyone Gallery is located in the city of Miami, United States. Since its inception, it has an emphasis on contemporary art. Dot Fiftyone features emerging and established artists, many of whom have exhibited their work in the States for the first time in the gallery. In turn, Dot Fiftyone is committed to giving visibility to local Miami artists and strengthening exchanges with the city's art community.
www.dotfiftyone.com
7275 NE 4th Ave
Miami FL 33138
