Joaquín Boz, Luciana Lamothe & Pablo Rasgado
May 24 – 28, 2017
Booth E13
At Arteba 2017, Steve Turner is pleased to present a three-person booth featuring the works of Joaquin Boz, Luciana Lamothe and Pablo Rasgado. Each of the artists uses simple materials and processes to dramatically transform the essence and meaning of the materials they use. In so doing, they all create abstract works are alternatively poetic and political.
Joaquin Boz creates large-scale abstract paintings that are thick with saturated oil which he extensively manipulates. Utilizing an elemental color palette, he employs a process based on rumination and revision, gesture and thought. After he soaks the panel in oil, he manipulates paint across the slick surface, mostly using his hands. The oil produces a varied and dynamic texture, from translucent to opaque, which adds depth to the abstract markings. The process can continue for weeks and the resulting works juxtapose Boz’s extensive physical activity with his sensitively drawn details.
Joaquín Boz (born 1987, Buenos Aires) studied at Universidad Torcuato Di Tella, Buenos Aires under the direction of Jorge Macchi. He has had solo exhibitions with Móvil, Buenos Aires (2014); Steve Turner, Los Angeles (2015 & 2017) as well as at Zona Maco, Mexico City (2016). He was awarded the First Prize Salón Nacional de Rosario, Buenos Aires (2015) and his work was included in My Beuons Aires, curated by Albertine de Galbert at La Maison Rouge, Paris (2015).
Luciana Lamothe uses construction and scaffolding materials in an elastic and dynamic way that contravenes expectations about their apparent rigidity. She uses no adhesives or screws to assemble her works; she only uses tension. Lamothe stresses the materials to just within their breaking point, creating doubts about strength and security. Reconfiguring conventional systems of language and architecture, she reveals that by undercutting the intended functions of structures, new constructive meanings become possible.
Luciana Lamothe (born 1975 Mercedes, Argentina) studied at the National School of Fine Arts, Buenos Aires (1999); participated in the Kuitca Scholarship, Universidad Torcuato Di Tella, Buenos Aires (2011); and has had residencies at Air Antwerp (2013) and Skowhegan (2007). She has had solo exhibitions at Steve Turner, Los Angeles (2016); MAMBA, Buenos Aires (2013); Ruth Benzacar Gallery, Buenos Aires (2014, 2011, 2008, 2006); and Arroniz Gallery, Mexico City (2012). Her works have been included in group exhibitions at Museo MAR, Buenos Aires (2015); La Maison Rouge, Paris (2015); Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2013); De Appel Art Center, Amsterdam (2011); the 11th Lyon Biennial (2011); and the 5th Berlin Biennial (2005). Lamothe will have her next solo exhibition at Steve Turner in September 2017.
Pablo Rasgado creates abstract paintings by using strappo, a Renaissance technique that enables him to extract pictorial content painted or graffitied on walls around the world. In some paintings, Rasgado incorporates violent gestures of political protest that were painted on public walls, while in others, he incorporate sections of public walls that seemingly lack any content. In either case, he seeks to record a specific moment in history through painting. Rather than create a narrative illustration like those found in traditional Mexican mural painting, Rasgado seeks to compose a forensic painting generated from the very material of popular protest that also conveys the spirit of the moment. He transforms political gestures into abstract paintings of transcendent beauty that make visible the paradox between a real event and the representation of it.
Pablo Rasgado (born 1984 Zapopan, Jalisco, Mexico) has had solo exhibitions at Steve Turner, Los Angeles (2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016); Arratia Beer, Berlin (2012 & 2014); OMR, Mexico City (2013); and Museo Experimental El Eco, Mexico City (2011). He has also had work in group exhibitions at XIII Bienal de Cuenca (2016); CAM Raleigh (2014); The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (2013); Ex Magazzini di San Cassian, Art Collateral Events, 55th Venice Biennale (2013); Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art, Israel (2013); Museo Carrillo Gil, Mexico City (2012); and Museum of Modern Art, Mexico City (2010). His work is owned by public collections including Wattis Foundation, San Francisco; Perez Art Museum, Miami; Jumex Collection, Mexico City; and Los Angeles County Museum of Art. He lives and works in Mexico City. His next solo exhibtition will be at Steve Turner in September, 2017.
