THE CISNEROS FONTANALS ART FOUNDATION PRESENTS NEW WORK BY RECIPIENTS OF THE 2008 GRANTS AND COMMISSIONS AWARDS IN ITS NEW EXHIBITION
Interrogating Systems: 2008 Grants and Commissions Exhibition
As we celebrate The Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation’s five years of supporting emerging and mid-career artists from Latin America, CIFO presents Interrogating Systems, its 2008 Grants and Commissions Programs exhibition on view from April 25 to June 22 at CIFO Art Space. For the first time CIFO will present works by the award recipients of both programs in one single exhibition. The 10 emerging artists who were awarded grants are: Alejandro Almanza Pereda (Mexico), Johanna Calle (Colombia), Jonathan Harker (Ecuador/Panama), Mateo López (Colombia), Daniel Medina (Venezuela), Moris (Israel Meza Moreno) (Mexico), Amilcar Packer (Brazil), Luis Romero (Venezuela), Ícaro Zorbar (Colombia) and Francisco Valdés (Chile). The two mid career artists selected as recipients of the Commissions Award are Pablo Cardoso (Ecuador) and Federico Herrero (Costa Rica). M/p>
The exhibition is the culmination of a year-long process during which the Foundation’s international Advisory Committee and Board of the Directors identified the grant and commissions recipients, and the artists developed new work to share with audiences in Miami.
“This exhibition celebrates five years of CIFO’s commitment with contemporary artists in Latin America and our audiences in Miami for the creation of a new, open platform of participation, dialogue and production of cutting-edge art in the region,” said CIFO’s Chief Curator, Cecilia Fajardo-Hill.
Artists are nominated for the Grants Program by CIFO’s international Advisory Committee of leading artists, curators, and art professionals. The honorary committee invites submissions from emerging visual artists from Latin America who are working in various media and creating challenging and highly innovative work. CIFO’s selection committee announces the final winners after rigorous study of over 300 project proposals and the Board of Directors elects the final winners.
The diverse and complex themes in the exhibition are explored with experimental and exciting forms of drawing, installation, painting and video. The two mid-career Commission Program artists Pablo Cardoso and Federico Herrero present large scale painting installations; Cardoso on the ‘fictions’ related to representing landscape, and Herrero who proposes a dialectical exchange between the spheres of high art painting and popular painting as it is found in urban developments.
For the first time CIFO has invited two New World School of Arts students to collaborate with one of the award grant artists to complete a mural, an integral component of the installation.
As with all of CIFO’s Grants and Commissions Program exhibitions, the artists chosen do not respond to a curatorial structure. There is, nevertheless, a common practice of questioning, enquiry and transgression in all the artists participating in this show. Another remarkable element in common amongst these artists: the construction and deconstruction of a sort of cartography of the world, conceived from the perspective of a subjective and intimate experience; as political and comitted inhabitants of this same cartography. This practice may take the form of a subtle and complex contextual social critique such is the case of Johanna Calle, Jonathan Harker and Moris. While others like Federico Herrero, Mateo López, Amilcar Packer and Francisco Valdés examine and question established notions of normality and common sense. Pablo Cardoso, Daniel Medina and Luis Romero propose new forms of cartographies that embrace the paradoxes of representing reality. In addition Alejandro Almanza Pereda and Ícaro Zorbar contemplate the precariousness and fragility of objects.
Now in their fifth year, CIFO’s Grants and Commissions programs provide critical funding and visibility for contemporary artists from Latin America, helping to broaden global appreciation of their work while challenging stereotypical notions of Latin American art. These programs and related exhibitions give artists from Latin America a new platform to show their work, and present them in the context of the international contemporary art community.
Related Exhibition Programming
Thursday, April 24, 2008
6-7 pm, A Cultural Spot Membership Launch and Gallery Walk with the Artists
7-10pm, Cocktail Reception (by invitation only)
Thursday, May 1, 2008, 7 pm
A Zeitgeist: Perspectives in Contemporary Art from Latin America
Panel discussion exploring the directions of today’s art production in the region featuring contemporary art curators: Cecilia Brunson (Chile), Elvis Fuentes (Cuba), Maria Iovino (Colombia), Guillermo Santamarina (Mexico) and moderated by Cecilia Fajardo-Hill, Chief Curator, CIFO
Saturday, May 10 and June 14, 2008, 7 pm
Wynwood Second Saturdays
CIFO Concert Series
Extended Exhibition Brochure
The exhibition brochure, including an introduction by Cecilia Fajardo-Hill and essay by Santiago Olmo is available in the admissions desk.
***LAUNCHING OF CIFO’S MEMBERSHIP PROGRAM***
BECOME A MEMBER ON THE SPOT!
In five years CIFO has become a dynamic institution promoting cultural exchange through its exhibitions and events. As we celebrate this anniversary, we invite you to support the ongoing success of one of South Florida’s most vibrant art foundations. Sign up in person at CIFO Art Space or visit our website: www.cifo.org . You can also contact us by phone at 305-455-3380, by fax at 305-455-3334 and via email at member@cifo.org. CIFO has planned many exciting events for this coming year so do join us and become “a cultural spot member”!
CIFO Art Space
1018 North Miami Avenue
Miami, FL 33136
Thursday – Sunday 10:00am – 4:00pm
www.cifo.org 305.455.3380
Media contact (English and Spanish):
Andrea Navarro, CIFO
305.455.3385, anavarro@cifo.org
