Profane Expressions: Reception September 11

Septemeber 11 - October 2, 2010 | Reception September 11, 7-10 pm

David Castillo Gallery is pleased to present "Profane Expressions", curated by Glexis Novoa, with works by Sandra Ceballos, Hamlet Lavastida, Ernesto Leal, Yali Romagoza, and Ezequiel Suraez.

Emerging from a trajectory that began in the latter half of the 1960s, when language emerged as an independent medium, the artists in Profane Expressions explore the variety of modes language can be utilized in artistic practice to convey and manipulate meaning. The works in Profane Expressions reassert the notions of “message as medium” that were initially pioneered by artists like Lawrence Weiner, Robert Barry and Joseph Kosuth. The works function within forms of communication and use expression as their primary medium of aesthetic experience.

Sandra Ceballos, Ernesto Leal, Hamlet Lavastida and Ezquiel Suarez utilize text in their works to reveal the power of language as a tool to convey and distort meaning. In a series of paintings that conjoin the reproductions of anonymous medieval human dissections with political texts, Ceballos employs the compositional devices of painting and collage to confound the meanings of her source materials to re-present new subjects.

Ernesto Leal’s work examines the power of language in art criticism to the reception and interpretation of an artist’s work. Occupying the gallery walls where his work would be, are vinyl texts written by critics discussing Leal’s work. By substituting his physical work with these texts, Leal raises questions about the roles of artists and critics as evaluators of meaning in art.

Tropaje de Ideas (2009) is a wall installation composed of 59 sheets of paper in which Hamlet Lavastida has cut out a series of passages from a found speech. Similar to Ceballos, Lavastida re-appropriates found discourses to explore the psychology of self-reflection and criticism in the media. Ezequiel Suarez’s drawings reveal the artist’s interest in the aesthetics of Outsider Art and the visual language of advertising and political slogans. Applying fashion and performance as formal languages, Yali Romagoza will present a series of male and female garments that explore the way clothing is used to communicate varying ideas of gender, power and identity.