DARIO ROBLETO
CHRYSANTHEMUM ANTHEMS
September 24-December 17, 2006
FALK VISITING ARTIST
Artists Lecture:
5:30pm, Monday, September 25
Artists Gallery Walk-Through:
4pm, Tuesday, September 26
Weatherspoon Art Museum
The Weatherspoon Art Museum at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro presents Dario Robleto: Chrysanthemum Anthems, a solo exhibition of sculpture by the acclaimed San Antonio-based artist Dario Robleto that focuses on symbols of grief and mourning connected to soldiers of war. The works in the exhibition inventively integrate the ephemeral by-products of past warsexcavated shrapnel and bullet lead, soldiers’ uniforms, telegrams and love letters home, mourning clothing, and hair locketsand harken back to the aesthetics of material culture in antebellum era America.
Coming at the end of a trilogy of exhibitions based upon the experiences of an anonymous, time-traveling soldier, Robleto’s newest work brings the soldier home to encounter the ramifications of war upon the family. Robleto asks us to imagine how, over time, the missing soldier served as an inspiration for his counterparta waiting wife, a sister, a motherto produce the objects in the exhibition. This idea of healing and redemption through creative production is recognized through the form and content of the works and, also, through the artists own process of making.
Dario Robleto: Chrysanthemum Anthems will travel to the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT (March 11 – June 24, 2007) and the Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, TN (August 25 – November 4, 2007). A 64-page catalogue, designed by PictureBox, Inc. in collaboration with the artist includes an essay by curator Xandra Eden and full color images of Robleto’s recent work. The catalogue is distributed by D.A.P. and is for sale in the museum shop. Special thanks to Inman Gallery, Houston and D’Amelio Terras, New York for their support of the publication.
This exhibition is part of the Falk Visiting Artist series, a program produced collaboratively since 1982 by the Weatherspoon Art Museum and the Art Department at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Robleto is on the UNCG campus from September 23-27 for his Falk Visiting Artist residency. His lecture is at 5:30 pm on Monday, September 25 in the museum auditorium, and his gallery talk is at 4 pm on Tuesday, September 26 in the Falk Gallery. At 6:30 pm on Thursday, November 2, Xandra Eden gives a curator’s talk, followed by screening of a film selected by Robleto, Mana – Beyond Belief (2004) by Peter Friedman and Roger Manley. All events are free and open to the public.
Artists Bio
Dario Robleto (b. 1972, San Antonio, Texas) received a BFA from the University of Texas-San Antonio in 1997. Recent solo exhibitions include Eunuch Euthanasia, Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita State University, Wichita (2004); Say Goodbye to Substance, Whitney Museum of American Art at Altria, New York (2003); A Surgeon, A Scalpel, and a Soul, Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego (2002); and I Thought I Knew Negation Until You Said Goodbye, Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston (2001). Group exhibitions include Ahistoric Occasion, Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA), North Adams (2006-7); 2004 Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2004); Treble, Sculpture Center, New York (2004); Rock My World, California College of Arts and Crafts, San Francisco (2002); Gene(sis): Contemporary Art Explores Human Genomics, Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle (2002); and One Planet under a Groove: Hip Hop and Contemporary Art, Bronx Museum of the Arts (2001). Robleto is represented by DAmelio Terras, New York; Inman Gallery, Houston; ACME, Los Angeles and Galerie Praz-Delavallade, Paris. Robleto lives and works in San Antonio.
Image: Obsequies in Albany, 2006 (detail). Homemade paper (pulp made from soldiers letters home from various wars, ink retrieved from letters, cotton), colored paper, thread and fabric from soldiers uniforms from various wars, cartes de visite, lace and fabric from a mourning dress, hair flowers braided by a Civil War widow, lantana stalks, silk, ribbon, pen, foam core. 33 x 27 x 3.5 in. Private collection, Texas. Photo: Ansen Seale.
About the Weatherspoon Art Museum
The Weatherspoon Art Museum at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro has one of the foremost collections of modern and contemporary art in the Southeast. Through a dynamic annual calendar of exhibitions and educational programs, the Weatherspoon provides an opportunity for audiences to consider artistic, cultural, and social issues of our time as it enriches the life of our university and community. The Weatherspoon Art Museum was founded in 1941. A bequest in 1950 from the renowned collection of Claribel and Etta Cone, which included prints and bronzes by Henri Matisse and other works on paper by American and European modernists, helped to establish the Weatherspoons permanent collection. Today, the collection represents all major art movements from the beginning of the 20th century to the present. The Weatherspoon not only serves the students and faculty of UNCG, but is also a nationally recognized art museum with audiences from throughout the region and across the country. For more information about the Weatherspoon Art Museum, visit our website at: weatherspoon.uncg.edu
Weatherspoon Art Museum
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Spring Garden and Tate Streets
PO Box 26170
Greensboro, North Carolina 27402-6170
336.334.5770
For more information or additional press images, contact: Loring Mortensen, 336-256-1451, lamorten@uncg.edu
