8/9/2004
Vargas-Suarez Universal
G-module, Paris
Event Horizon. In astrophysics, the Event Horizon is the position at which the force of gravity becomes inescapable, the point of no return. It also describes a place at which Vargas-Suarez Universal necessarily arrives at in the making of a wall drawing, when there is nothing left to do but plunge ahead. Now, in two linked series, Universal plays on institutional presentation, domestic and personal style - as well as on the ambition and scale of his own practice - by using photographs culled from glossy magazines and those shot on a recent trip to Europe, as the basis for new 'virtual' projects.
Event Horizon
g-module will present the second solo exhibition in Europe of Mexican-American artist, Vargas-Suarez Universal. In astrophysics, the Event Horizon is the position at which the force of gravity becomes inescapable, the point of no return. It also describes a place at which Vargas-Suarez Universal necessarily arrives at in the making of a wall drawing, when there is nothing left to do but plunge ahead. Now, in two linked series, Universal plays on institutional presentation, domestic and personal style - as well as on the ambition and scale of his own practice - by using photographs culled from glossy magazines and those shot on a recent trip to Europe, as the basis for new 'virtual' projects.
In Event Horizon: (location and city), V-SU paints directly onto images of interiors, but is unhindered by the practicalities of the actual locations depicted, which range from luxury homes to grandiose museums. But while he works with the knowledge that his designs will never be realized in situ, he adheres to implied restrictions by working around architectural details. Rephotographed, and presented at uniform proportions, Event Horizon: (location and city) is a set of possibilities both startling and witty.
Event Horizon: Dermis sees V-SU apply a similar strategy to the opposite end of the scale, etching networks of lines over the preternaturally smooth faces of models. While the designs themselves are familiar - stark, jagged abstractions - their points of reference have shifted from the constructed to the corporeal, the futuristic to the tribal.
Finally in the basement space, Event Horizon: Time + Space Curvature, a series of drawings made onto 'retired' satellite dishes will be presented. V-SU exploits the dishes' concave and convex surfaces as a sculptural equivalent to the theoretical framework suggested by the title. The drawings on the satellite dishes are formally reminiscent of barcodes and communications signals diagramming.
New York based Vargas-Suarez Universal will have one person exhibition at the America's Society Art Gallery, New York (November 2004). Current projects in situ include: Arterial Systems , a newly comissioned, research-based wall drawing at the Jersey City Medical Center and Space Station : Jersey, a comissioned semi-permanent, monumental wall drawing at the Jersey City Museum through 2005. Recent group exhibitions include Mexico Illuminated at Freedman Gallery Albright College/Center for the Arts, Reading, Pennsylvania; Voces Y Visiones, El Museo del Barrio, New York and at the Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, NY; and Il Palazzo delle Liberta at Palazzo delle Papesse Centro Arte Contremporanea, Siena, Italy.
Vargas-Suarez Universal is represented in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art , The Whitney Museum of American Art, The Brooklyn Museum of Art Library and El Museo del Barrio, NY, Baltimore Museum of Art, Maryland, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence and the Palazzo delle Papesse Centro Arte Contemporanea, Siena, Italy, among others.
September 9 – October 23, 2004
Event Horizon : Opera del Duomo, Firenze, 2004
Event Horizon : Dermis II, 2004
opening : Thursday, September 9, 6pm (VA3+)
hours : 2 – 8 pm, Wednesday – Saturday and by appointment
contact : Jeff Gleich
next: FIAC : Future Quake, October 20--25
Gordon Terry – November/December 2004
location: g-module paris, 15, rue Debelleyme (corner of rue de Poitou in the Marais)
métro : St. Sébastien Froissart