Press Release: Dario Robleto

08.15.00

Dario Robleto was born in 1972 and raised in San Antonio, TX where he lives and
works. After studies at the University of Texas El Paso and Yale Summer School of
Music and Art, he received his B.F.A. from the University of Texas at San Antonio in
1997. He has quickly emerged as a leading artist in San Antonio, participating in group
shows including Millenium Fever (1998) at Diverseworks, Houston; Inside the Loop
(1998) at Blue Star Art Space, San Antonio; Trade (1998) at Salon 300 in Brooklyn;
Paradise 8 (1999) at Exit Art, New York; A Girl Like You (1999) at Galerie Praz-
Delavallde, Paris. Solo exhibitions have been held at Cactus Bra Gallery, San Antonio
(1997); University of Houston (1997); Diverseworks, Houston (1998); Inman Gallery,
Houston (1999); the Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, NC (1999); Finesilver Gallery, San
Antonio (2000); and ACME, Los Angeles (2000). As part of the Altoids Tin Canvas
series, his work will adorn limited edition tins of the breath mint. In 2001 he will be the
subject of a Perspectives exhibition at the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston.

Robleto's sculptural works draw from popular culture, particularly music and the
music industry. Using the tools of a DJ, Robleto samples, cuts, mixes and spins together
narratives, materials, and personal experience to create intimate, hand-made objects that
are infused with romantic pleasure.

Dario Robleto was selected for ArtPace's International Artist-in-Residence Program
by Sun Jung Kim, Chief Curator of Sonje Museum of Contemporary Art, Korea. Ham is
in residence with Korean Yiso Bahc and New York-based Yangah Ham.

Dario Robleto's project at ArtPace continues his interest in popular music culture.
Titled The Polar Soul, he considers the installation the third in a trilogy of exhibitions
(shows at Finesilver Gallery, San Antonio and ACME, Los Angeles preceded his ArtPace
residency). In this series of work, Robleto critiques the shifts in late 20th century popular
music?luding Peace Rock, garage grunge, Motown and Top-40 pop. Each exhibition
has been marked by a performative aspect that celebrates the creation, and subsequent
breakup, of the artist's bands. Themes of production and fan culture in popular music
have proven rich territory for Robleto's investigations of love, tragedy, desire and hope.

The Polar Soul draws upon technically-oriented, heavily produced electronic music,
which is often accused of being without soul. Robleto applies the metaphor of a
Frankenstein-like laboratory to the fabrication of popular music. Exhibited like a cabinet
of curiosities, Robleto presents a range of handmade sculptures crafted from the material
of recorded music. In a collection of works derived from the Peace Rock movement,
geological forms predominate: Bob Dylan's album The Times They are A-Changing is
literally melted down to become marrow in a slice of dinosaur bone; a chunk of amber is
embedded with pieces of vinyl from John Lennon and Yoko Ono's Give Peace a Chance;
Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney's recording of Ebony and Ivory takes form as
Nanosaurus Rex skull; an audiotape of Jimi Hendrix's Purple Haze is melted down and
combined with amethyst crystals as a geode. Hundreds of such objects are displayed in
museum cases, creating a "rock museum."

In his largest work to date, If We Do Ever Get Any Closer At Cloning Ourselves
Please Tell My Scientist-Doctor To Use Motown Records As My Connecting Parts b/w
The Polar Soul, Robleto fills a sealed room with home-made blue crystals. Visible
through a Plexiglas window, the fluorescent-lit room appears like a laboratory growing
organic forms?image the artist likens to the growth and life of a band. Special tubing
connects the room to a cabinet containing objects made from Motown records in the
gallery, perhaps to draw breath or extract soul from these potent objects.

445 North Main Avenue San Antonio TX 78205 t 210 212 4900 f 210 212 4990 www.artpace.org