The exhibition Miracle of the Eternal Present surveys more than two decades of work by Mexican artist Gonzalo Lebrija. Using a wide range of mediums—photography, video, sculpture, and painting—Lebrija reframes familiar objects or activities, sometimes altered only slightly, to imbue them with poetic and symbolic force.
His works are generally unified by his search for evidence of higher meaning or transcendence. At times, he finds this transcendence through stasis: Cuban cigar smokers captured in a moment of repose offer a counterpoint to the agitated state of a modern, consumer-oriented society.
He also finds extraordinary meaning in heroic figures like charros, traditional Mexican horse riders, with their majestic costumes and their virtuoso rope work. Lebrija is always looking for moments of interruption, breaks in our everydayness, events that introduce into modern society a sense of the miraculous.
His sculpture, History of Suspended Time (A Monument to the Impossible), is currently on view across from...the museum.
Organized by Palm Springs Art Museum, this exhibition is curated by Adam Lerner, JoAnn McGrath Executive Director/CEO.
This season’s exhibitions are sponsored by the Herman & Faye Sarkowsky Charitable Foundation and Yvonne & Steve (in memoriam) Maloney.
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Gonzalo Lebrija (b.1972, Mexico City, Mexico)
Formed in Communication at the Instituto Tecnológico de Estudios Superiores de Occidente (Guadalajara, Mexico). He uses the mediums of photography, video, sound and sculpture to capture the aesthetic experience of time. With an almost humorous nihilism, he explores the passage and futility of life, often focusing on the vertiginous possibilities of frozen moments.
In previous projects Lebrija approached the subject of Mexican daily life, dissecting the social and cultural structures that support it. Through gestures that might seem naïve, the artist makes evident the contingency of institutions that provide solidity to daily life interactions; the bureaucratic dynamics are translated into childish games and the obsession with productivity derived from the capitalist ethos is reduced to the absurd.
Gonzalo Lebrija’s recent solo exhibitions and projects include: La suerte de detener el tiempo, curated by Patrick Charpenel at Centro Cultural Beckmann in Tequila, (Jalisco, Mexico, 2021), Cathedral, curated by Humberto Moro at SCAD Museum in Savannah, (Georgia, United States, 2019); Vía Láctea, Museo Rufino Tamayo (Mexico City, Mexico, 2018) and Palacio de Bellas Artes (La Habana, Cuba, 2016); Mariachi Wagner, Moody Performance Hall (Dallas, United States, 2018); Caída Libre, Galerie Laurent Godin (Paris, France, 2017); Unfolded Paintings, Travesía Cuatro (Guadalajara, Mexico, 2017); Unfolded, Galerie Laurent Godin (Paris, France, 2015) and Museo de Arte de Zapopan (Guadalajara, Mexico, 2015); Who knows where the time goes, Faggionato (London, UK, 2014); Possibility of Disaster, Centro de las Artes de Monterrey (Monterrey, Mexico, 2014); R75/ Toaster, Multimedia Art Museum (Moscow, Russia, 2013) and Galerie Laurent Godin (Paris, France 2008); Deriva Especular, Museo de Arte Moderno (Mexico City, Mexico, 2011); The Distance Between You and Me, I-20 Gallery (New York, United States, 2010)
Lebrija is also cofounder of Oficina para Proyectos de Arte (OPA) in Guadalajara, Mexico, where he currently lives and works.
Entrada actualizada el el 22 abr de 2022
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