7/12/2011
Asier Mendizabal
Raven Row, London
The artist researches the symbols through which cultures are represented. He is especially interested in oppositional and sub-cultures. Mendizabal unpicks and re-imagines these, questioning the relation of cultural identity to cultural representation, and generating new forms of abstraction.
Raven Row will present the work of Asier Mendizabal (born Ordizia, Basque Country, 1973), in his largest exhibition outside Spain to date.
Mendizabal researches the symbols through which cultures are represented. He is especially interested in oppositional and sub-cultures, which are often defined by their adherence to such symbols. Mendizabal unpicks and re-imagines these, questioning the relation of cultural identity to cultural representation, and generating new forms of abstraction.
Mendizabal works with a variety of media, and this exhibition will include photography, graphics and photomontages, but its strongest register will be with abstract sculpture. In a new text written to provide a context for the exhibition, Mendizabal has translated a letter by Basque artist Jorge Oteiza, addressed (but never sent) to the jury of a competition organised in 1952 by the ICA in London, to select a monument to The Unknown Political Prisoner. He reconsiders Oteiza's argument for a radical abstraction to represent the political in art.
Mendizabal's solo exhibitions include: Asier Mendizabal, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, 2011; Asier Mendizabal - and/or Culturgest, Lisbon, 2010; and Asier Mendizabal, Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona, 2008. His work was recently included in the Venice Biennale, 2011, and To the Arts, Citizens!, Museu Serralves, Porto, Portugal, 2010. He is represented by Carreras Múgica Gallery, Bilbao, Gallery ProjecteSD, Barcelona, and Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London. He lives and works in Bilbao.
Image:
Untitled (Targu Jiu), 2010
Concrete, offset prints
130 x 50 cm
Installation view at Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid
Photo: Joaquín Cortés/Román Lores, courtesy Carreras Múgica Gallery, Bilbao
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