Artificial

Adriana Lara

Exhibition: Nov 19, 2009 – Jan 10, 2010


Adriana Lara’s Artpace exhibition, Artificial, explores concepts related to the making of art. Lara believes that art in everyday life is more ordinary and present, rather than something rare and in constant need of explanation. One way in which she expresses this idea is by spelling the word “artificial” using bathroom fixtures she set up outdoors. A shot of this work is included in an 8 mm video of the same title.

For this non-narrative video, Lara entered the studio of many San Antonio artists and captured them in the process of producing works. The close-ups and jump-cuts de-emphasize the artists’ individual identities and, instead, focus on the ordinary movements and actions that comprise the artistic work. In addition to the action footage, Lara asked the artists to direct a scene as an alternative way of portraying their mind at work. In essence, this project functions as a form of portraiture intended to demystify artists and their processes.

The exhibition includes a serigraph depicting a self-portrait of Xavier, an artist featured in past shows by Perros Negros, The group presented his work for the first time in Sentimental Gallery (2007), a year-long gallery installation that featured Xavier and other artists working outside the traditional art market. Lara has quoted previous works before; they are part of the artist’s visual language and fruitful elements that continue to be mined.

Chess Board, New Moon, and Corner Painting are Lara’s first forays into painting. They are conceived as images/objects that take one to another space and moment in different ways. Chess Board could be seen as a strategy field, similar to how a white canvas can appear for an artist; New Moon turns our attention to the sky in search for something on the only day of the month when one is unable to locate the moon; and Corner Painting draws our attentioArtificial questions art, its formats, roles, and the conditions under which it’s made.

–Alexander Freeman, Education Curator

Artist

Adriana Lara

Mexico City, Mexico

Mexico City-based artist Adriana Lara de-emphasizes object making in favor of a conceptual reimagining of artistic production and the exhibition space. She playfully turns her attention to artistic models in order to set up problems or situations for the viewer to reflect upon. Lara is also co-founder of Perros Negros, which she describes as “a production office of artistic projects in small, medium, and big scale, carried out from a research of possibilities and collaborations between different agents not necessarily related to each other.”
Lara is a self-taught artist. She has had solo exhibitions at Gaga Arte Contemporaneo, Mexico City (2008); Galería Comercial, San Juan, Puerto Rico (2007); and Air de Paris, Paris, France (2007). Her work has been included in many group exhibitions, including San Juan Poly/Graphic Triennial, Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña, San Juan, Puerto Rico (2009); Galerie Isabella Bortolozzi, Berlin, Germany (2009); The Generational: Younger than Jesus, New Museum, New York, New York (2009); and LA MAMAIN ET LA PUTAIN, Air de Paris, Paris, France (2006).

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Curator

Jens Hoffmann

San Francisco, California, USA

Jens Hoffmann was appointed Director of the CCA Wattis Institute, San Francisco in 2006. Before assuming his position at the CCA Wattis Institute, Hoffmann was director of exhibitions at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in London. At the ICA he organized several group exhibitions, including Alien Nation (2006); 100 Artists See God (2004-5); and Artists’ Favorite (2004). He has curated solo exhibitions for John Bock, Cerith Wyn Evans, Tino Sehgal, Jonathan Monk and Martha Rosler. Hoffmann has worked for institutions and exhibitions such as the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY; Dia Center for the Arts, New York, NY; Documenta X, Kassel, Germany; and Portikus Kunsthalle, Frankfurt, Germany, among others. Recent publications include Ice Cream: Contemporary Art in Culture (Phaidon, 2007), co-authored with nine other curators; The Next Documenta Should be Curated by an Artist (Revolver, 2004); and Perform (Thames & Hudson, 2005), co-authored with Joan Jonas.
 

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