arco2018 | Deconstruction: venezuelan contemporary art

The work of 17 contemporary Venezuelan artists will be presented at the next edition of Arco Madrid. The project, organized by independent curator Isabela Villanueva, is an initiative of the Venezuelan collector Solita Cohen and has the support of the Otazu Foundation and the ATT Foundation. The exhibition seeks to make visible, on an international platform, Venezuelan artistic production, because during the last two decades there have been few opportunities for abroad exhibitions. Deconstruction: Contemporary Venezuelan Art will include recent works by Ana Alenso, Luis Arroyo, Alessandro Balteo-Yazbeck, Magdalena Fernandez, Dulce Gomez, Arturo Herrera, Juan Iribarren, Suwon Lee, Esperanza Mayobre, Esmelyn Miranda, Luis Molina Pantin, Jorge Pedro Núñez, Juan José Olavarría, Oscar Abraham Pabon, Lucia Pizzani, Luis Romero and Christian Vinck.

The pieces exhibited are based on the concept of deconstruction developed by Jacques Derrida, and seek to analyze, integrate and recontextualize the accepted bases of meanings. The papers reject the prevailing authority, and seek the continuous questioning that keeps our minds open to the idea that there may be alternative points of view and understandings.

The exhibition includes internationally recognized artists such as Arturo Herrera or Magdalena Fernández with emerging young artists with shorter trajectories, as well as others who still reside in the country, such as Dulce Gómez or Esmelyn Miranda along with those who had or decided to emigrate and they reside outside Venezuela.

Venezuela have had a very important develop in the visual arts: since modern times when great figures such as Alejandro Otero, Gego or Jesús Soto among others carried out research and works that are now recognized for their contribution to the history of Universal Art; as well as during the following decades when artists such as the collective of the Roof of the Whale, Yeni & Nan, or Roberto Obregón continued with avant-garde research and created powerful and relevant works that currently belong to the collections of major museums such as the MoMA in New York, the Reina Sofia in Madrid or the Pompidou in Paris. Due to the political situation that has plagued the country for two decades, the lack of funds to support culture and the "kidnapping" of museums and cultural institutions in Venezuela have not been organized either inside or outside the country projects, exhibitions or publications to make Venezuelan contemporary art known among curators, academics, collectors or the general public.
Given this situation, the exhibition is organized, which will be continued by a publication that Villanueva will publish and that will seek to present a broader and more complete panorama of contemporary Venezuelan artistic production.

As proof of his commitment to Venezuelan art, the Otazu Foundation has created a production grant that will support an artist who resides in Venezuela and who will provide funds to produce a new work. The winner of the scholarship will be announced at the opening of the exhibition in Arco.

Deconstruction: Venezuelan Contemporary Art will be presented in Room 37 of Arco Madrid from Wednesday 21 to Sunday 25 February.