Painting After - Omar Rodriguez-Graham by Otmar Osante Mariel

Painting After | Omar Rodriguez-Graham

PAINTING AFTER

Omar Rodriguez-Graham

Contents

Introduction

Alegorian Post-Formalism

Exhibition

Paintings

About the Artist

Gallery

List of Works

Credits & Contributors

100

Introduction Painting After

After more than twelve years of trajectory, Omar Rodriguez-Graham’s practice is at an inflection point. Omar has developed a more-than-critical view of painting as a discipline of art, as a battleground of ideas about painting. He uses its own mechanisms to talk about its communicative effectiveness, and in the process, to expand its activity towards new experimental narratives, which are expressed through the combination of memory and desire.

Since the beginning of his work as a painter, Rodriguez-Graham has been devoted to the exploration of the processes and languages of painting. If his previous work established the premise that “painting should not function as a creation of images, but as a presentation of the fundamental language of painting”, his recent body of work tries, not to present, but to intervene —subvert? the reliable link between the sign and its world of referentiality.

His recent work is founded under the Platonic concept of anamnesis, which he builds through the cannibalization of iconic images taken from Western art. By appropriating and distorting the figures, marks, colors and space of these classic works, the artist creates a visual vocabulary shaped, under different parameters, in completely new compositions.

Painting After is set as a series of pictorial reminiscences, like past quotes passed down by the works’ own vision and admired thoughts, in order to examine its visual construction. Rodriguez-Graham proposes a revision —a proper way of measuring the work’s context— by digitizing, then vectorizing classic European paintings, and finally, returning them to the canvas. Weighing the way we construct our visions from the remnants of the original visual data.

Alegorian Post-Formalism Painting as image in the history of painting

This

essay

focuses

Omar

Rodriguez-

to the explanation given by Tony Godfrey on the

Graham’s painting as a post-formalist practice of

status of painting today: “It has been established

disassembling and reassembling the tradition of

that the impulse to paint begins, first of all, in

painting. As a result, within this practice, we find

the desire to emulate a well-known painting,

two historically antagonistic poles. How then,

and, secondly, in the impulse to press a tube and

can the corporality that distinguishes painting

spread paint over the canvas. The first leads us to

from other methods of image reproduction be

a tradition; the second, to materiality”.

understood as a potent vehicle for considering the structure of painting as montage? In other words,

This apparently simplistic definition nevertheless

how can we relate painting to those practices

provides two paths which become pertinent when

usually associated with other disciplines involving

considering Omar Rodriguez-Graham´s recent

fragmentation, such as photomontage? Again, we

work. If on one hand we rethink formalism as

would need to create a dialectic for contradictory

a matter of preference for materiality itself,

art concepts, to analyze in what manner painting

we have to conclude that such materiality is

can be understood as putting images from the

also a condensation of images. Thus, the status

past into circulation.

of materiality, even when tending towards abstraction, is nurtured by sources which “carry

In this scenario, we could say that painting – before

us back” to tradition. First of all, one would need

being placed in the sphere of materiality which

to realize that the dialectic exercise in which the

was eventually invaded by minimalist objecthood

majority of debates on modern painting were

in the 1960s – reveals that its persistence today

founded, figuration vs. abstraction, are hardly

comes back to a reflection on the image. We refer

relevant in our search for an understanding of

how painting has outlived Modernism as well as

known as The Arcades Project. One should

Postmodern Historicism. Hence, the notion that

recognize that linking the concepts of allegory

in its ties to Formalism, the pictorial image can

and montage, as done by Benjamin, in terms of

show us other paths to explain the persistence of

Rodriguez-Graham’s paintings might at first

painting today.

sight seem a risky exercise, however, it allows us to differentiate the meaning of pictorial allegory

Although the formalist narrative of painting

in this field from theoretical reflection on the

appears to have been exhausted in terms of a

image.

teleological vision that would culminate in its own self-definition, in recent years we have

Still, it is worth clarifying that, in methodological

seen emerging practices that revive certain

terms, applying the allegory, as in Benjamin’s

aspects of abstract painting. Yet, far from

sense of the fragment, might seem a questionable

perpetuating an overlapping of planes according

effort. While, for the philosopher of modernity,

to the constructivist stereotypes of industrial

allegory would refer to fragmentation – in other

mechanization, inspired by theological beliefs,

words, ruin. In the painting of Rodriguez-Graham

or, presupposing the expression of subjectivity

the practice of assembling and disassembling

without external interference, these practices are

obeys pictorial principles whose outcome forces

more prone to those analytical exercises which

us to think in strict terms of the dialectics of

have characterized minimalist and conceptual

the image. Although there is fragmentation,

procedures.

the images which he pictorially develops show a distinct character to that which Benjamin

Possibly, the key concept for understanding this

observed in Parisian passages, merchandise, or in

method of reinvention of pictorial materiality – in

Avant-Garde art.

the formalist sense – would have its corresponding dialectic in allegories. To mention this dialectical

In this regard, it must be understood that,

framework in terms of art theory brings to mind

in this series of paintings, the notions of

the concept of allegory that Walter Benjamin

assembly and disassembly of allegories refer

coined for reflecting on modernity and the

us to representations taken from the history

procedure of montage, themes fully developed

of painting. Thus, what must be taken into

in texts such as The Origin of German Tragic

account is that ‘the model’ from which the artist

Drama, and, later, in his unfinished manuscript

departs is a digital construction, or rather, a

fragmented assemblage of such historiographic

the allegorical figure is gradually erased from

references. These “constructions” created by

painting to painting until it becomes abstract and

the artist himself and based on the manipulation

flat – an evolutionary process which illustrates

of allegorical paintings with the end of painting

the transfiguration of an allegory into pictorial

them on a canvas, paradoxically turn back

materiality. We might say that this work of art –

towards the lexicon of abstraction. This practice

an example of the advent of conceptual painting

of deconstructing and reconstructing images

– is a precedent for those artists who practice

from original works of art enables the distancing

painting based on images from its own history.

of the ‘copy’ from the established canonic model. The notion of montage is therefore related to a

Nevertheless, the difference between Richter’s

paradoxical condition, that is to say, it is aligned

proposal and Rodriguez-Graham’s allegorical

with a tradition of formalist materiality as the

paintings, is that the digital fragmentation of the

pictorial consequence of fragmentation. This

latter brings them closer to the method of montage.

practice, in turn, opens up the possibility for the

The combination of allegorical images provides a

construction of a unique work of art on canvas,

glimpse of the contours of some foreshortened

which has historically legitimized painting as an

figures between forms delimited by color,

auratic, unrepeatable object.

sometimes a horse, or the suggestion of a lance. In these, allegories become abstract formations

Concerning this definition of classical allegory

recalling Baroque theatrical compositions where

– as differentiated from Benjamin’s notion – it

figures were stretched to heighten their dramatic

is hard not to mention artworks which similarly

impact. Paradoxically, this exercise turns back

invert the idea of reproduction, by referencing

digital reproduction towards the unique work

photography – an indexical medium – in terms of

of art. This is the moment when Benjamin’s

unrepeatable pictorial materiality, to the degree

references acquire meaning, given that we are

that the image dissolves within the language

faced with a pictorial-allegorical montage which

of abstraction. A paradigmatic case worth

– although linked to abstraction – is surprisingly

mentioning is Gerhard Richter´s polyptych in

conceived from the fragmentation of the image.

which he “reproduces” Titian’s Annunciation, in his painting Annunciation after Titian

On this basis, and when referring to certain

(1973), using a photographic reproduction of

practices of painting today, we could say that

the original painting as a “model”. In this work,

we undoubtedly find ourselves in the field of

image production. However, in this context,

way of participating in the stream of historical

said production goes back to the reproducibility

images. Unlike other eras that mark the history

of images with the end of returning them once

of art, the awareness of contemporary artists of

more to the unique work of art, which in turn

belonging to a tradition means that the game of

revives the ideology of the artist’s subjectivity

manipulating images for their eventual transfer to

and originality. It is here that we must clarify

the materiality of the painting becomes a pictorial

that although the myth of the genius is founded

analysis of images from the history of painting.

on the idea of originality, as if images appeared

The practice of painting is a millenary chain of

by magic in the psyche of a creator, it has today

the interpretation of the imaginary. We see this

become widely accepted that the configuration of

condition in the particular case of this series

the imaginary can be attributed to historic flows

of paintings, in so far as the pictorial gesture

in which such images reproduce, as in the case of

becomes an incessant exercise of reconstruction

ancient allegories. If the classical artist with his

of foundational allegories. If we take hold of

technical skills transformed myths or biblical texts

the concept pathosformel, coined by historian

into tangible forms of sculpture and painting, it

Aby Warburg, we will understand this linkage

should be understood that the configured images

were derived from distant sources, always subject

itself as the images travel in time. With this

to a transmutation in relation to the various

in mind, we can rethink the notion of image

ideological frameworks of the times.

fragmentation in Rodriguez-Graham’s analytic

pathological

practice,

content

intersecting

that

Benjaminian

transmutes

concepts

Thus, historiography has shown the persistence

with Warburgian notions that, in strict terms,

of ancient art in Renaissance Classicism,

are opposed to the Hegelian or formalist

followed by successive reconfigurations of

understanding of history.

classicist imaginary in Baroque variegations and Nineteenth Century Neoclassicism. Within this

As Linda Baez explains, allegories, symbols or

same narrative scaffolding, hagiographic imagery

engrams enable the emotive charge for works of

has also been analyzed in the formation of new

art to travel in time. Supporting the engrams is

canons or visions within styles and epochs, along

Mnemosine, in other words, memory. According

with a resignification of Greco-Roman allegories.

to this theory, these inventories of symbols – such

With this standard in mind, the painting of Omar

as allegories – form the repertoire which the

Rodriguez-Graham could well be read as a

artist calls on “to reject or share, according to the

impulse provided by this conglomerate of images”.

as pictorial analysis. What is relevant in this

We can now begin to reflect on how Rodriguez-

procedure is how Rodriguez-Graham’s paintings

Graham’s work, although analytic, paradoxically

acquire expressivity without submitting to the

emerges as expressive. Before surmising that this

myth of romantic impulse which presupposes the

is due to the artist’s subjectivity embodied on

transfer of a tormented subjectivity of the artist

the canvas – as is presupposed in expressionist

onto the canvas.

language – perhaps it is convenient to understand that what is at stake is the journey of the old forms

Bringing Warburgian iconology to this analysis

that the artist manipulates in such a way that his

is appropriate, especially because of its interest

expressivity acquires a new pathos.

in the vestiges of Classical Antiquity. Hence the notion of “survivor image” (Nachleben), i.e., the

If we now view Warburg’s conception in terms

imprint of allegories before the objects themselves,

of those images which Omar Rodriguez-Graham

or rather “tradition before materiality”, acquire

selects from the past – such as François Boucher´s

a new relevance insofar as psychic formations.

Rococo painting The Triumph of Venus (after

This explanation of the journey of the emotional

1743); The Tower of Babel (1563), an allegory

charge over time through the surviving images

of hubris facing the divine, by Peter Brueghel the

that struggle in montage, is also closely related

Elder; the triptych of The Battle of San Romano

to the way in which Rodríguez-Graham confronts

(1456-60) by Fifteenth Century artist Paolo

images of the past to the point of constructing a

Uccello, which combines the perspectives and

new expressive symbol.

foreshortening characteristic of the Renaissance; The Turkish Bath (1863), the romantic painting

It is important to recall that Warburg, while

with Oriental theme by Jean-Auguste-Dominique

studying from an iconological perspective the

Ingres; the Venetian Giovanni Battista Tiepolo’s

resurgence of classical culture in the Italian

Rococo paintings of the allegories of Rinaldo and

Renaissance, unveiled the symptomatic and

Armida (1745) and Apollo, the Planets and the

unconscious manifestation of the flow of images

Continents (1752); as well as some references

as a phenomenon of collective emotionalism.

from modern painting such as Marcel Duchamp’s

Another verification of how little expressivity

Nude Descending the Staircase (1912) – we

has to do with individual subjectivity. At the

must rethink how these images travel and are

same time, with this appearance of symbols, the

reconfigured through what we have identified

notion of a linear history is dismantled. What

can we now say about Rodriguez-Graham’s work

process. Rodriguez-Graham’s paintings initiate

in relation to these assumptions of the psychic

the practice of the reformulation of ancient

charge of the reconfiguration of those images

pictorial images by revealing the formalist

in time? It should be noted that, contrary to the

language of abstraction. It is surprising how they

iconological exercise, the images return, but as a

are able to put in motion the “survival of the

tangle of forms and colors in which their iconic

images” of historic painting. This formalization

character gives way to post-formalist composition.

is nothing other than the essence of the pictorial

Nevertheless, with its basis in the theory of an

effect, the emotive charge of the formula now

artwork as a reactivation of expressive charges

reduced to the material experience of the

from other eras, it would be necessary to verify

painting which, even when abstract, submits to

if the formal materiality becomes an analysis,

the phantom traveler who carries the emotive

that is to say, one which is consistent with the

nature of the allegories.

concept of painting as medium; the expressivity of the paintings results directly from symbolic

Therefore, the exercise of creating anachronisms

procedures of the linkage of allegories. In this

is twofold. On the one hand, the psychic

sense, we could understand Rodriguez-Graham’s

transposition of expressive symbols persists, while,

painting as an analysis of the history of painting.

on the other hand, the reduction of emotionalism of the formalist archetype relativizes historical

Within Warburg’s conception of history there

narratives, to the point that pictorial analysis is

exists the idea of temporary disorientation, in

once again a scheme capable of transmigrating

which there can be no evolutionary meaning,

the sentiment of images. Upon reaffirming the

except for anachronisms. Therefore, the process of

anachronism of allegories, the history of painting

painting the history of painting, becomes a passing

can appear through an abstract engram where

gesture, which by relativizing the entrenchment of

a torrent of images and its expressivity are

the original, restores the symbol’s accumulation

condensed within a schematic formula. Which

of energy by making it anachronistic. But, what

we have here named: “allegoric post-formalism.”

is particular in Rodriguez-Graham’s artwork is not only that the images become anachronic,

Another way to understand how expressivity

but also the formalistic narrative, which – in the

becomes scheme, or formula, emerges in the

historiographic concept of the development of

process of overlapping images to the point of

painting – supposes an evolutionary, teleological

creating a new composition. By diluting figuration,

this operation takes away the narrative of the

called historic Avant-Garde and formalism – is

image, but without losing the expressivity of the

reformulated here in a synthesis which is only

allegories. If we think of this exercise in terms of

viable after the end of painting, in its classical as

the iconological study of art history – ergo, not

well as formalist sense.

linear – we note that, during the assembling of images, they undergo a transmutation to the point

Therefore, in the pictorialist restatement seen in

of losing their iconicity. This loss is the result of

this group of works, the baroque figures become

clear aesthetic conviction, determined to redirect

abstract, even while disturbingly reminiscent of

the symbolic charge of the images of a painting

allegorical themes. In this wager on “abstract

in a circularity that is nurtured by historical

allegorism,” the image loses iconicity in favor of

repertoires in order to take them apart and

the simplification of the figures in reconfigurations

reassemble them in an “abstract appearance”.

which

Broadly speaking, what is also blurred is the

refrains of baroque figures and Renaissance

Hegelian sense of a unique, universal narrative,

foreshortening. In this sense, it would be suitable

from which formalism is nurtured.

to state that this series reformulates classical

scrutinize

the

tensions,

turns,

and

schemes from the perspective of assemblage and Such pictorial strategy also gains merit as it

material formalism. Hence the anachronistic

provides the opportunity of turning back to

characterization of the work indicates that these

classical repertoires without falling into a dead

paintings must be placed at the margins of history.

end that today tends to emulate academic virtuosity of old times. Twisting the repertoire of

In terms of these procedures, it is worthwhile

Great European Painting via an analytic process,

to refer to one more of Warburg’s concepts:

makes way for painterly forms that end up being

the “knot of anachronisms”; in other words,

more receptive in that that they avoid engaging in

a mixture of things past and present. In this

the effect-driven optics of chiaroscuro. The optic

respect, and moving past the narrative of painting

that Rodriguez-Graham proposes is not so much

as self-defined, the images break loose from the

a tendentious academic feat but, rather, the fruit

history of painting. If we take this thought to its

of disassembly and reassembly. This procedure –

final conclusion, a flat surface is primarily – prior

which in theoretical terms has been understood

to a reduction of the painting to its essence –

in a manner contrary to abstract painting, or,

an image of a modernist concept. Based on this

rather, as a tacit differentiation between the so-

analysis, the work of Rodriguez-Graham brings

forth an organization of flat colored surfaces

at the margin of tradition and materiality suppose?

for reassembly, a post-formalism heedless of

It seems that the artist today has no alternative

historicity defined by a teleology of painting.

except negotiating with the long history of the

In this sense it would be valid to conclude that

Western pictorial tradition. Or, rather, think that

upon detaching himself from worn-out uses

it is possible to paint without negotiating with the

of modernist telos, the artist “anachronizes”

history of art, but this is nonsense. Rodriguez-

classicism as well as the variants of abstraction.

Graham´s paintings are thus a reiteration which not only reaffirms the survival of ancient pictorial

We could also take into account that academic

symbols, but which also provokes reflection on

teaching, with so much copying of models, has

the persistence of painting beyond the exhaustion

unleashed the survival of images along with

of modern narratives.

their anachronic nature. The “great masters” of European painting have, in this respect, been

According

the canon of successive dismantling, which, in

understood by Warburg, does not offer us any

turn, have reaffirmed the persistence of tradition

possibility of simplifying history: “…it imposes

through continuous elaboration of new formulae.

a fearsome disorientation for all whims or

Didi-Huberman, referring to the Warburgian

attempts at dividing history or art into periods.

iconological thesis, explains: “To validate all of

It is a transversal notion to all chronological

this is to give into the evidence that the ideas

division”. This is when it is worthwhile to ask

of tradition and transmission are of fearsome

oneself again: What does the pictorial practice

complexity [….] they are made of conscious

which Rodriguez-Graham proposes mean? If we

processes

the

think of it as an analytic exercise which opens the

forgotten and rediscoveries, of inhibitions and

possibility of restating painting in terms of image

destructions, of assimilations and inversions of

of the history of painting, we’d have to resume the

senses, of sublimations and alterations”. On this

idea that the opposition between formalism and

same path, the theorist asks himself “Won’t there

the procedures of montage, which we recognize in

be time for the phantoms, a return of images, a

the photographic processes of historic vanguards,

survival (Nachleben) which isn’t subject to the

are diluted. For a similar reflection, we would

transmission model which assumes imitation

have to understand that we are facing painting

(Nachahmung) of ancient works of art by more

after the end of painting, that is to say, a period

recent art works?”. So, what does creating a model

of disorientation for which there is no single

and

unconscious

processes,

Didi-Huberman,

survival,

rule. We find ourselves now very far from the historical exhaustion of its modernist conception. For that reason, painting today is a practice that understands its own history, not as a condition for advancement, but as a self-conscious, analytic position, after postmodernity. In this sense, as Godfrey would say, “tradition and materiality coexist”. We verify this condition in the modus operandi of this series of paintings, in the sense that they reveal a synthesis between opposites which, for modernity, were irreconcilable.

The set of works that make up Omar RodriguezGraham’s Anamnesis are part of an era in which painting after history should be understood as painting history itself. But this approach should not be limited solely to an analytic reflection on the pictorial tradition, but in terms of an experience of aesthetic pleasure. The shifting of subjectivity through the gesture reveals how pictorial poetics can be a disorientating act, whose purpose lies in resignifying the meaning of the allegories in such a way that its emotive charge – psychic and mnemonic – finds new formulas of visual materialization. It is thus that Omar RodriguezGraham’s analytic works reveal how allegorical expression of the pictorial persists after the end of modernist and postmodernist painting. Proof that painting as a poetic gesture or allegorical impulse has no end.

The Exhibition

The Paintings

In the Morning We Will Awake to Find Ourselves Devoured by Father Time Oil on linen 220 x 300 cm (86.6 x 118.1 in) 2017

Shall Star-Like Rise As Great In Flame Oil on linen 250 x 220 cm (98.4 x 86.6 in) 2017

Terremoto (Earthquake) Oil on linen 190 x 160 cm (74.8 x 63 in) 2016

In the Beginning there Was Flame Oil on linen Ă¸ 150 cm (59 in) 2017

Moire Oil on linen Ă¸ 140 cm (55.1 in) 2017

And the Waves... Oil on linen 200 x 168.5 cm (78.7 x 66.3 in) 2017

Science, Fiction, Memories Oil on linen 100 x 83 cm (39.4 x 32.7 in) 2016

As the Knights Dance Oil on linen 150 x 135 cm (59 x 53.1 in) 2017

The Artist

Omar Rodriguez-Graham Mexico, 1978

Rodriguez-Graham graduated with a BA from Drew University in Madison, N.J., U.S.A. in 2003 and received his MFA in Painting from Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, P.A., U.S.A. in 2005. Among the residencies he has atended are The Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and The Banff Centre. He will be a resident at Casa Wabi during the spring of 2017.

His work has been shown both individually and collectively in México, the United States, Europe and South America. And is held in private and public collections in Brazil, Colombia, Germany, Mexico, Peru, Singapore, the United States of America and Venezuela among which are included The JUMEX Collection, Mexico; Museum of Modern Art, Mexico; The SPACE Collection (formerly known as Sayago & Pardon), USA; and the Jorge Pérez Collection, USA.

Rodriguez-Graham’s work is the result of an ongoing exploration of painting’s inherent language; hoping to find the meeting point between the recognizable and the abstract. His work begins with the use of recognizable images as an armature upon which to place marks: traces of the event of painting. Together, these marks construct a figure that acts not as a replacement or stand-in of this initial figuration, but as a memory. A amalgamation between the translation of a recollection and the construction of something neaw.

Within his recent work, Rodriguez-Graham has tackled a group of paintings based on physical constructions; sculptures that present a purely painterly experience. Which upon being re-presented upon a canvas, suggesting a new reality that presents a coexistence between the recognizable and the abstract.

Recent solo shows include: Anamnesis, Queretaro City Museum (Mexico); El Manto, Macca Gallery (Italy); Rafagas, Wu Gallery (Peru); Mise en Abyme, Nueve Ochenta Gallery (Colombia) and Pintura Construida, Libertad Gallery (Mexico).

Curriculum

EDUCATION 2005

MFA, Tyler School of Art, Temple University. Philadelphia, USA.

2003

BA in Arts, Drew University. New Jersey, USA.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2017

(Upcoming), Drew University, Madison, USA. Painting After, Arróniz Arte Contemporáneo. Mexico City.

2016

Anamnesis, Querétaro City Museum. Queretaro, Mexico. El Manto, Galleria Macca. Cagliari, Italy. Anamnesis, Casa del Lago, UNAM. Mexico City.

2015

Ráfagas, Wu Gallery. Lima, Peru.

2014

Eternal Return, Arróniz Arte Contemporáneo. Mexico City.

2013

Mise en Abyme, Nueveochenta. Bogota, Colombia.

2012

Pintura Construida, Galería Libertad. Queretaro, Mexico.

2011

Variaciones Sobre un Tema, Arróniz Arte Contemporáneo. Mexico City.

2008

Reposo, Museo de la Ciudad de Querétaro. Queretaro, Mexico. La Muerte Reina Bella y Melancólica, Galería Hilario Galguera. Mexico City..

2005

Live.Work Thesis Exhibition, Temple Gallery. Philadelphia, USA.

GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2015

El futuro no está escrito / The Future is Unwritten, Giorgio Cini Foundation. Florence, Italy. Pararrayos, Mexico’s Embassy in Germany. Berlin, Germany.

2014

El Hombre al Desnudo, Dimensiones de la masculinidad a partir de 1800, Museo Nacional de Arte (MUNAL). Mexico City. DOPPELGÄNGER, Arróniz Arte Contemporáneo. Mexico City.

2013

Rudimentum, Christinger De Mayo. Zurich, Switzerland. Yo.Contenido, CECUT. Tijuana, Mexico. After the Object, Y Gallery. New York, USA. Ensamble, DIAGRAMA. Mexico City.

2012

XV Bienal de Pintura Rufino Tamayo, Museo Tamayo. Mexico City. Resistencia, DIAGRAMA. Mexico City. Sugar and Wood: New Paintings by Anna Membrino and Omar Rodriguez-Graham, Marty Walker Gallery. Dallas, USA. Casa de Empeño, Anonymous Gallery. Mexico City. Espacios Quebrantados, Arróniz Arte Contemporáneo. Mexico City.

2011

XV Bienal de Pintura Rufino Tamayo, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo. Oaxaca, Mexico.

2011

Entre el Arte y el Diseño, Galería Mexicana de Diseño. Mexico City. Naturaleza Muerta: Contemporary Mexican Painting, The Laundromat. Brooklyn, NY, USA. Creación en Movimiento de Jóvenes Creadores Generación 2006 - 2007, Biblioteca Vasconcelos. Mexico City.

2010

Bella y Terca, Nueve Argumentos Sobre la Pintura, Museo de Arte Moderno. Mexico City. Luna: Una expresión artística 5a Edición, Auditorio Nacional. Mexico City.

2009

There are false problems more than there are false solutions more than there are false solutions for true problems. Or The Fist time is already the second. Or Being must have a fundamental lapse of memory., Proyectos Monclova at NRML. Monterrey, Mexico. IMPERIVM Capitulo I: Que Viva México!, Galeria Hilario Galguera. Spinerei, Leipzig, Germany.

2008

Bienal De Queretaro, Julio Castillo, Galería Libertad. Queretaro, Mexico. Index 2 : Pulsional, Galería Hilario Galguera. Mexico City. The U.S. Contemporary Artist in México, Museo Británico. Mexico City. Una Imagen, Dos Interpretaciones, Obra de Oscar Rodriguez y Omar Rodriguez-Graham, Salon de la Plástica Mexicana. Mexico City. Artistas Por El Medio Ambiente, Galería Metropolitana. Mexico City. Bienal Pedro Coronel, Museo Pedro Coronel. Zacatecas, Mexico. La Llegada de los Bárbaros, Galería Hilario Galguera: Leipzig. Leipzig, Germany. Artistas Por El Medio Ambiente, Galería Hecaro. Mexico City. Group Exhibition, Arcaute Arte Contemporáneo. Monterrey, Mexico. Luna: Una expresión artística 4a Edición, Auditorio Nacional. Mexico City. Salta La Liebre, Casa del Lago Juan José Arreola. Mexico City.

2007

Index: Esperando A Los Bárbaros, Galería Hilario Galguera. Mexico City. Creación en Movimiento de Jóvenes Creadores Generación 2006 - 2007, Museo Francisco Cossio. San Luis Potosi, Mexico. Realidad: Pendiente Galería 13, Galería 13. Mexico City. El Acoso de las Fantasías, El Casino Metropolitano. Mexico City.

2006

Another Fucking Collective Art Show, Arcaute Arte Contemporáneo. Monterrey, Mexico.

2005

Melbourne Vs. New York, Technikunst Festival. Sydney, Australia.

2003

The Brewster Project. Brewster, USA.

AWARDS, GRANTS & RESIDENCIES 2017

(Upcoming residency), Casa Wabi, Puerto Escondido, Mexico.

2013

Residence, Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture. Skowhegan, USA. FONCA Jovenes Creadores grant 2013-2014, CONACULTA. Mexico.

2010

Residence, The Banff Centre. Banff, Canada.

2009

Grant FONCA / The Banff Centre Residency. Mexico.

2006

FONCA Jovenes Creadores grant 2006-2007, CONACULTA. Mexico.

2003

Residence, Sumei Art Centre. Newark, NJ, USA.

PUBLIC COLLECTIONS The Jumex Collection, Mexico. Museum of Modern Art, Mexico. SHCP Collection (Secretaría de Hacienda y Crédito Público), Mexico. SPACE Collection (formerly known as Sayago & Pardon), USA. Jorge Perez Collection, USA. Fondazione Luciano Benetton Studi Ricerche, Italy.

The Gallery

Arróniz Arte Contemporáneo

Arróniz emerged from a particular interest to work with a new generation of artists from Mexico and Latin America. Our main drive is to support and closely follow the careers of our artists both locally and internationally. A key element to our labor are the multiple exchanges with other galleries from other countries and participation in art fairs around the world.

Our local program is composed by exhibitions of our represented, or invited artists, and a parallel presentation in the projects room where a specific piece or project –created with the space in mind– is showed. This allows us to expand our cultural offer to new audiences while working in collaboration with other artists, curators and institutions.

Represented artists:

Daniel Alcalá José Luis Landet Marcela Armas Almudena Lobera Omar Barquet Nicola López Christian Camacho Reynoso

Pablo López Luz

Gilberto Esparza

Moris (Israel Meza Moreno)

Mónica Espinosa Mark Powell Taka Fernández Iván Puig Fernando García Correa

Ishmael Randall-Weeks

Mauro Giaconi Ricardo Rendón Agustín González Omar Rodriguez-Graham Sergio Gutiérrez Jaime Ruiz Otis

List of Works

Pages 48-51 In the Morning We Will Awake to Find Ourselves Devoured by Father Time Oil on linen 220 x 300 cm (86.6 x 118.1 in) 2017

Pages 52-55 Shall Star-Like Rise As Great In Flame Oil on linen 250 x 220 cm (98.4 x 86.6 in) 2017

Pages 65-67 Moire Oil on linen Ă¸ 140 cm (55.1 in) 2017

Pages 69-71 And the Waves... Oil on linen 200 x 168.5 cm (78.7 x 66.3 in) 2017

Pages 57-59 Terremoto (Earthquake) Oil on linen 190 x 160 cm (74.8 x 63 in) 2016

Pages 61-63 In the Beginning there Was Flame Oil on linen Ă¸ 150 cm (59 in) 2017

Pages 73-75 Science, Fiction, Memories Oil on linen 100 x 83 cm (39.4 x 32.7 in) 2016

Pages 77-79 As the Knights Dance Oil on linen 150 x 135 cm (59 x 53.1 in) 2017

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Painting After Omar Rodriguez-Graham Contributors & Credits

Painting After, a solo exhibition by Omar Rodriguez-Graham.

Main Room, Arróniz Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City. February 7 - April 8, 2017.

Contributors All artworks by Omar Rodriguez-Graham. Introduction by María Álvarez (adaptation). Essay by Willy Kautz. Design & photography by Otmar Osante Mariel.

The moral rights of the authors have been asserted.

This publication may not be reproduced or utilised in any form or by any means, including photocopying, printing or reproducing in any medium or by any method, in whole or in part, without the written permission of its contributors.

101

Introduction Adaptation of the text ‘Anamnesis or the Pictorial Essayism of Rodriguez-Graham’ © María Álvarez First published in Anamnesis, co-edited by Casa del Lago UNAM, the BBVA Bancomer Foundation and the Queretaro City Museum. Sicomoro Ediciones, 2017.

Essay Alegorian Post-Formalism: Painting as image in the history of painting © Willy Kautz First published in Anamnesis, co-edited by Casa del Lago UNAM, the BBVA Bancomer Foundation and the Queretaro City Museum. Sicomoro Ediciones, 2017.