A Poet in New York or New York in a Poet
Mauricio Alejo, ‘Memory From My Former Apartment’, 2006. Courtesy of the artist and CURRO Gallery
A Poet in New York or New York in a Poet
Curator: Alejandro Cámara Frías
Artists: Mauricio Alejo, Alejandro Almanza Pereda, Balam Bartolomé, Tania Candiani, Livia Corona Benjamin, Gabriela Galván, Pablo Helguera, Mario Navarro , Claudia Peña Salinas, Adrián S. Bará , Bosco Sodi
Gallery: Abrazo Interno Gallery
Dates: October 7th - November 5th, 2021
Opening Reception: October 7th, 2021
A Poet in New York or New York in a Poet brings together the work of eleven Mexican contemporary artists who live or have lived in New York to review the persistent narrative around this city as the ultimate platform for Mexican and Latin American art. Its title is inspired by a lecture delivered by the Spanish poet Federico García Lorca on his book "Poet in New York." This text was a key turning for poetic expression in Spain and the Americas, and was published posthumously in Mexico in 1940.
Drawing on the literary background of the participating artists and the origins of The Clemente, this exhibition seeks to shed light on the diverse contemporary experience of being a "Mexican artist in New York". Taking as a starting point this construction and the prototypical experience of the modern artist, intoxicated by the beauty and decay of the big city and its "extra-human architecture and furious rhythm, geometry and anguish", in García Lorca’s words, this exhibition aims to showcase some of the artistic pursuits of the Mexican community in New York, while fostering a connection to other multicultural communities.
The selected artists have established specific dialogues with neighborhoods such as the Lower East Side, Chinatown and Queens, influencing and being shaped by the urban space they inhabit, but also engaging with the dynamic relationships that take place there. The use of natural or handcrafted materials in contrast to consumer objects or abstract and geometric shapes and structures; the fascination with the study of architecture, the perception of space and the awareness of labor, combined with an ambiguous feeling of nostalgia and displacement, or of being in two places at the same time (a dialectic of absence and presence), are some of the aesthetics the exhibition unfolds.
This exhibition is made possible thanks to the support of The Clemente, The Mexican Cultural Institute of Mexico in New York (MCINY), and CURRO Gallery.
