FROM THE HEROIC TO THE ABSURD
March 10-April 30, 2016
Opening Reception: Thursday, March 10, 7-9PM
Artist-led Tour: 7:30pm-8pm
Cuban Toronto-based artist Omar Estrada, Cuban Hamilton-based artist Julio Ferrer and Mexican Ottawa-based artist Guillermo Trejo explore the genres of installation, printmaking, photography and video games to offer insight into the realm of utopia and dystopia often found in Latin American politics.
Taken from a quote by Simón Bolívar “there is only a step between the heroic and the absurd” the exhibition attempts to subvert historical narratives by questioning sovereignties, re-evaluate ideological constructs, resist centres of power, and aesthetically rupture infallibility.
Latin America has a long tradition of honoring national heroes, those who fought for independence, martyrs who died in the name of revolutions, and courageous women and men who continue to fight for the disenfranchised, for freedom. Some adored more than others, some given stature and state recognition, others portrayed as terrorists, this concept of...grandiosity occupies an important place in the Latin American imaginary and psyche. Simón Bolívar’s political legacy due to his historical relevance during the process of independence in Latin America has reached international recognition. Parks and main squares bear his name; coins cast his image; and busts and statues are erected in his memory, including one right here in Toronto. Yet, Karl Marx criticized Bolívar calling him a "falsifier, deserter, conspirator, liar, coward, and looter" and dismissed Bolívar as a "false liberator who merely sought to preserve the power of the old Creole nobility which he belonged to." (Beddow, D. Méndez; Thibodeaux, Sam J. (2010). Gangrillas : the unspoken pros and cons of legalizing drugs. [U.S.]: Trafford On Demand Pub. p. 29.)
The role of the artist is not to erect monuments, or defame Bolívar’s legacy, but to offer insight into the normalcy of human nature, and as such, accept that all heroes may fall into streams of ridicule, disputing perceptions of perfection.
OMAR ESTRADA is a Cuban visual artist who works with interdisciplinary installation, sound, video, interactivity, and narrative text. His artwork explores the tensions between art, science and technology in the context of social structures, questioning the validity of political and cultural knowledge as absolute. Since 1983, Estrada has had solo exhibitions in Cuba, the Caribbean, South America and North America and has shown his work in group exhibitions in Cuba, France, Spain, Korea, Canada and the USA, most recently in the 2015 Havana Biennial and the Caribbean Biennial in the Dominican Republic. Estrada received his MFA from the University of the Arts (ISA) in Havana, Cuba. He has taught art at the bachelor and masters degree level for more than 20 years and lives and works between Havana and Toronto.
JULIO FERRER is a Hamilton-based Cuban painter and printmaker whose Pop Art inspired artwork originates from and comments irreverently upon political, societal, as well as personal experience. Ferrer was born in 1973 in Cienfuegos, Cuba and is a graduate of the Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas in Havana. He has participated in ninety group exhibitions and eighteen solo exhibitions such as: La Madre de todas las Artes at Centro Wilfredo Lam, Havana (2016); Centro, Zona Franca, 12 Havana Biennale (2015); Conspiracy of One, Conspiracy Culture Gallery, Toronto (2014); Arroz con Mango, Flying Pony Gallery, Toronto (2013); and TRANSITIONS…from Cuba to America, Galerie Gabriel, New Jersey (2011). Since 1990, Ferrer has won 21 awards for his artwork, including two top prizes in the Bienal Internacional del Humor de San Antonio de los Baños, in Havana (1997 and 2001). In 2006, he was selected Artist of the Year in his home province of Cienfuegos. Ferrer’s artwork is in numerous private and public collections in Cuba, the Americas and Europe.
GUILLERMO TREJO is a Mexican artist based in Ottawa. He completed his BFA at the National School of Painting, Sculpture and Etching in Mexico City with a specialization in printmaking and moved to Canada in 2007. Guillermo Trejo earned an MFA from the University of Ottawa and has exhibited at the Ottawa Art Gallery, Saw Gallery and other artist run centres across the country. In 2014, he participated in the Quebec City Triennial and was shortlisted for the Ottawa RBC Emerging Artist Prize. He has been an Artist-in-Residence at Creative Fusion (Cleveland) and the global Symposium of Contemporary Art of Baie-Saint-Paul. Trejo has received various awards, among them the Young Artist FONCA grant for Mexican Artists and a production grant from the Canada Council for the Arts. In addition, Trejo has worked as a research consultant for the National Gallery of Canada, teaches at the Ottawa School of Art (OSA) and directs OSA editions; a project that invites local artists to create limited print editions at the OSA print studio.
Entrada actualizada el el 26 feb de 2016
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