10/1/2010
Felix Gonzalez-Torres
20 locations,
Billboard Works in 20 locations throughout Texas
Artpace Presents First-Ever Comprehensive Survey of Felix Gonzalez-Torres' Billboard Works in the US
Artpace San Antonio mounts an ambitious state-wide exhibition of 13 seminal billboards created by Cuban-born American artist Felix Gonzalez-Torres (1957–1996) between 1989 and 1995. The billboards will appear in locations throughout the Dallas, El Paso, Houston, and San Antonio areas, rotating within those cities every four weeks. Developed with special permission from the Felix Gonzales-Torres Foundation, this presentation is the first-ever comprehensive survey of Gonzalez-Torres' billboard works—honoring his participation as a fellow in Artpace's inaugural International Artist-in-Residence Program and marking the 15th anniversary of Artpace.
Artpace has secured more than 20 locations throughout Texas where the images—a hand extended, a bird in flight—will, as curator Robert Storr wrote in Artpace's initial catalogue New Works for a New Space (1995), "quietly make one wonder at the nuanced flux of time, contingent freedom, intimacy, and loss…" Situated deliberately in the public's path, these artworks gracefully interrupt our daily routines with poignant reflections on life, love and humanity. The transcendent quality of Gonzalez-Torres' work will be magnified in the Texas landscape—propelling Artpace's mission into the community. Organized by Executive Director Matthew Drutt, the project is made possible with in-kind support from Clear Channel Outdoor and major funding provided by the Linda Pace Foundation, commemorating founder Linda Pace's extraordinary gesture to encourage public access to contemporary art in Texas—in this instance, the work of one of the most influential artists of a generation.
Image: Untitled (The New Plan), 1991 © The Felix Gonzalez-Torres Foundation. Courtesy Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York
Press contact Artpace San Antonio
Matt Johns at mjohns@artpace.org or call 210.212.4900 x314. http://www.artpace.org