New Contemporary Art From Chile 33 Degrees South At EB & Flow

EB & Flow

As the international art world is increasingly looking to South America for inspiration, 33 Degrees South: Contemporary Art from Chile brings together the work of six upcoming Chilean artists to a UK audience. Working in the mode of what has been called “Poetic Conceptualism”, these artists provide a new perspectives within the global conceptual narrative, using personal reverie, classical culture and the earth as their source material. This exhibition presents an in-depth selection of the work by each of these artists.

This is a new generation who began emerging out of the fabric of the new Chilean democracy in the late 90s. They ground themselves in the materials of the everyday but use them to engage the spectator in a fantastical, obsessive, abstract dialogue with the universe around them. Despite the monumentality that characterizes some of the works, there is an undeniable modesty in their composition.

Every day materials are transformed into unexpected and magnificent effects: Elastic bands are transformed into towering monoliths; multicoloured pipe cleaners echo swathes of brushstrokes; elsewhere virtuoso canvases skew the senses in a trompe l’oeil mimicry of Persian carpets for a domestic environment. Fallen wood finds renewed function, and ornamental porcelain melt and drip into the newly acquired context of ‘the gallery’. Finally, the very walls of the space are transformed into a neo-classical two-come-three dimensional architectural game of perception.

Catalina Bauer was born in Buenos Aires in 1976 and was raised in Chile. She graduated with a Master of Arts from the University of Chile. She lives and works in Santiago where she has exhibited regularly since 1999. She has lived in the UK as an artist resident at Gasworks, London. Most recent exhibitions include Tectonic Shift: Contemporary Art from Chile, Saatchi Gallery and Phillips de Pury, London (2011); Moscow Biennale (2011); Contaminaciones Contemporáneas, Museum of Contemporary Art in São Paulo (2010); Casa de America in Madrid (2010); Albores, Museum of Anthropology of Xalapa, México (2007).

Josefina Guilisasti was born in Santiago in 1963. Guilisasti holds a Master’s Degree in Fine Arts from the Universidad de Chile. Most recent exhibitions include Tectonic Shift: Contemporary Art from Chile, Saatchi Gallery and Phillips de Pury, London; Marfa–Puerto Viejo, Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, Texas. Southern Exposure, Dumbo Arts Center, New York, USA; Itinerancia, Mercosur Biennial, Porto Alegre, Brazil; Fragmento II, Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation, Miami, Florida, USA. Fragmento I, Bienal de Pontevedra, Galicia, Spain; Marking Time: Contemporary Art from Chile, Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, Texas. Her work is found in numerous private and public collections such as Patricia Phelps de Cisneros and Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, Texas within others. Josefina Guilisasti has been nominated by Modern Painters (2011) as one of the five next stars coming out of Latin America.

Livia Marin was born in Santiago in 1973 in Chile; she lives and works in London. Trained as a sculptor, Marin earned her MFA from Universidad de Chile and a MPhill/PhD in Arts at Goldsmith College, University of London. Most recent exhibitions include Objet Dada, Edel Assanti Project Space, London; Contemporary Eye: Crossovers, Pallant House Gallery, Chichester; Tectonic Shift: Contemporary Art from Chile, Saatchi Gallery and Phillips de Pury, London; Broken Things, House of Propellers, London; El lugar de lo invisible, Sala Gasco, Santiago, Chile; Manuf®actured: The Conspicuous Transformation of Everyday Objects, Museum of Contemporary Craft, Portland, Oregon, USA (2008); Poetics of the Handmade, The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles, USA, Maximinimalist, Institute of Visual Arts (Inova), Milwaukee, USA (2007); Multiplication. Museum of Contemporary Art, Santiago, Chile (2006); IV Mercosur Biennial, Porto Alegre, Brazil, (2003). Marin was nominated on six occasions to the National Fund for the Arts and Culture (FONDART), Government of Chile

Gerardo Pulido was born in Santiago in 1975. Pulido holds a Ph.D in Art Education, from the University of Seville, Spain, a Master’s and a Bachelor of Arts Degrees from the Catholic University of Chile. Among his main exhibitions are Tectonic Shift: Contemporary Art from Chile, Saatchi Gallery and Philips de Pury, Londres (2010); Flujo. Obras de Gerardo Pulido y Tomás Rivas, MAVI, Santiago (2009); Sur Scène, Castillo de Tours, Tours (2007); Políticas de la Diferencia: Arte Iberoamericano de Fin de Siglo, MALBA, Buenos Aires (2001). He has also received numerous scholarships and awards such as the AMA (Chile, 2008); National Funds for the Arts and Culture (Fondart) Government of Chile (2006); Scholarship MAE, AECI (Spain, 2005-2003). He has published several essays on art and is the Co-editor of Index, Paper Art and Criticism (2001-1997, Chile). Pulido teaches at the Universidad Católica and Universidad Diego Portales.

Tomás Rivas was born in Santiago in 1975. Rivas holds a Master’s Degree in Fine Arts (MFA) from the University of Notre Dame, IN, United States and a Bachelor of Arts from the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile. His work has been exhibited throughout Argentina, Germany, Brazil, Chile, United States, France, England, and Israel. Among his main exhibits we find Tectonic Shift: Contemporary Art from Chile, Saatchi Gallery and Philips de Pury, London (2011); Contaminaciones Contemporáneas, Museum of Contemporary Art in São Paulo (2010); Chili, l’envers du décor , Espace Culturel Louis Vuitton, Paris (2010); Slash, Paper under the knife, Museum of Art and Design, New York (2009); Boyscraft, (Haifa Museum of Art), Haifa (2008); Abre Alas, Galería A Gentil Carioca, Rio de Janeiro (2007); Since 2003, he has received awards and scholarships including the AMA Scholarship, (2008), the Scope Emerging Artist Grant (Emerging Artist Award) Foundation Scope New York (2006). Rivas is currently living in Chicago.

Malu Stewart was born in Santiago in 1962. After graduating from Universidad Católica de Chile, Stewart was bestowed a scholarship by the Chilean government and the British Council to complete a post graduate degree at The Slade School of Fine Art (1992–1995). In London, Stewart was nominated for the Cyril Sweett Award in the Summer shows of 1995 at the Slade, granted by The Worshipful Company of Painter–Stainers. Selected exhibitions include her recent solo show Green Fingers at Sala Gasco, Santiago, Chile (2012); A Long Summer, House of Propellers, London (2011) Tectonic Shift: Contemporary Art from Chile, Saatchi Gallery and Philips de Pury, London (2011). Her work can be found in numerous private and public art collections in Chile and abroad such that include The Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, Texas and ABN AMRO Bank, Sao Paulo, Visual Arts Museum, MAVI, Santiago, Chile; within others.

Cecilia Brunson is an independent curator based in London. For more than a decade she has worked in New York and Latin America. Her career began in 1991 in New York at the age of nineteen. For ten years she built a collection of Latin American art with the Edwards publishing family. In 2001 after graduating from the Centre for Curatorial Studies at Bard College, she was appointed Coordinator of Exhibitions at The Americas Society in New York. This was followed by an invitation to be Associate Curator of Latin American Art at The Blanton Museum of Art in Austin, Texas. Because of her interest in supporting emerging artists and bringing to light the work of up-and-coming curators she founded INCUBO in Chile. This was a residency program for international curators to innovate and experiment with different formats for exhibitions, lectures and publications. She recently directs the AMA Fellowship, a grant that facilitates residencies abroad for Chilean artists. In 2010 she curated a series of solo- exhibitions by Chilean artists at House of Propellers, London. In 2011, she curated Tectonic Shift, a group show from the Juan Yarur Collection, at Saatchi Gallery and Phillips de Pury.

EB&Flow 77 Leonard St, London, EC2A 4QS   www.ebandflowgallery.com Curated by Cecilia Brunson Group Show 9 October – 9 November 2012

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