WHO WRITES HISTORY IN PUBLIC SPACE? IVÁN ARGOTE AT DALLAS CONTEMPORARY

On October 3, Dallas Contemporary presented How to Move a Monument on a Tuesday Morning, a solo exhibition by internationally acclaimed artist Iván Argote. Open through January 31, 2027, the exhibition brings together sculpture, painting, and moving image to examine the ways monuments shape collective memory, public space, and systems of power.

Across newly commissioned works and recent bodies of work, Argote considers how historical narratives are constructed, contested, and transformed over time. The exhibition is accompanied by DIGNIDAD, a mobile monument created by Argote in collaboration with Floating Museum and curator Carla Acevedo-Yates, which was installed outside Dallas Contemporary in September.

At the center of the exhibition is Levitate, a three-channel video installation revisiting the removal of colonial-era monuments in Rome, Madrid, and Paris. Through poetic and politically charged imagery, the work reflects on migration, identity, and the evolving meanings of public symbols in contemporary society. By documenting moments in which monuments are physically displaced or symbolically reconsidered, Argote invites viewers to imagine alternative relationships to history and civic space.

The exhibition also premiered newly produced sculptures from Argote's ongoing Wild Flowers series. Reproducing fragments of historic public figures—in this case, Christopher Columbus—the sculptures are hollowed out, cast in bronze, and transformed into planters containing flora native to the regions in which they are exhibited. Through this gesture, Argote reimagines monuments to nations' so-called "great men," shifting their meaning from static symbols of conquest and authority toward living sites of regeneration, memory, and change.

Also featured are works from The Print series (since 2025), which marks a significant new exploration in Argote's practice. Combining painting with his characteristic use of concrete, the bas-relief works integrate iconic texts with politically and emotionally charged content, alongside bronze details embedded within cement surfaces. Blurring the boundaries between painting and sculpture, the series proposes a more fluid and evolving understanding of monuments—one rooted less in permanence and dominance than in dialogue and reinterpretation.

"Dallas Contemporary exists to create meaningful encounters with the most compelling artists working today, and Iván Argote's work exemplifies the kind of bold artistic thinking that defines our program," said John McBride, Interim Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer. "This presentation invites audiences to think critically about history, memory, and the public spaces we share, while demonstrating the power of contemporary art to spark dialogue and new ways of seeing."

The exhibition is curated by Dallas native Pilar Tompkins Rivas, Chief Curator and Vice President of Arts at AltaMed in Los Angeles. Tompkins Rivas is an internationally recognized curator whose work centers artists engaging with social, political, and cultural transformation. Previously, she was the founding Chief Curator and Deputy Director, Curatorial and Collections for the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, Director of the Vincent Price Art Museum, and has held positions at Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the University of California, Los Angeles. Her exhibitions have been celebrated for foregrounding experimental and globally engaged artistic practices.