Abraham Cruzvillegas, Little Song (Installation View), via Kurimanzutto
On view at Kurimanzutto’s New York exhibition space this month, artist Abraham Cruzvillegas brings forth his second solo project in the city with a new body of sculptural pieces created in his studio in Mexico City in the last year. The show, which takes over the gallery’s larger exhibition space in the city, integrations the artist’s signature approach and trademark color motifs, paying tribute to the work of Brazilian post-war art while engaging with the aritst’s own iterative exploration of historical and material interests.
Abraham Cruzvillegas, Little Song (Installation View), via Kurimanzutto
For the first time, in this body of work, Cruzvillegas creates the colors himself through a combination of organic and mineral matter. Pink is produced by the crushing, smashing, juicing, dripping and smudging of blackberries, and green by the oxidation and alchemic transfiguration of copper in many of its forms: from scavenged cables, forgotten pennies and scraps of old plumbing pipes to pieces of engraving plaques, using vinegar, heat and air, Geometric shapes cast in plaster evidence the remnants of his experiments in color creation and are covered in wax, while also containing the compositions of collected pieces of the artist’s life story: a champagne cork from a dinner party with friends, music records from Spain, horsehair ropes from a residence in Tequila, organic sponges painted for a show in Greece, repurposed scraps of paintings, ribbons from gifts, leather straps, usb cables, among many other objects that recompose fragments of Cruzvillegas’s existence. Although the selection of objects is entirely random, some will be collected from New York City itself in the run up to the show.
Abraham Cruzvillegas, Little Song (Installation View), via Kurimanzutto
Inside the gallery space, these shapes hang from ceilings and walls, laid across the floor, some are connected to each other, and others stand on their own upon tubular copper legs. A few of the objects can be manipulated into different forms and will be altered throughout the duration of the show. This is a testament to the artist’s enduring fascination with using space in different ways and testing out all possible combinations in his work.
A central will for this project is to witness transformation, as he tries to understand the process of change through energy and the interaction between matter, including himself. Moreover, the artist tries to bear witness to the many ways in which we use our hands, including labor and pleasure, which is why he incorporates many handcrafted elements, manual tools used for creating other objects and bits of musical instruments, and evidence from joy, like beer bottle caps, balls, toys, shells, and seeds. The hand and its capabilities are present in all of the compositions and give a wide spectrum of activities that are part of every-bodies’ everyday life, including the artist. The use of tools, as a distinctive characteristic that separates us from other primates, has been an important part of the artist’s research over the years and has been portrayed in literal, allegoric, and abstracted ways through his work, with pleasure as an engine.
The artist’s work is on view through June 16th.
– D. Creahan
Read more:
Abraham Cruzvillegas:Â Little Song [Exhibition Site]
