Lucia Warck-Meister
ARTEMISIA
Point of Contact Gallery Staff: Sara Felice Director Rainer Wehner Preparator Weisi Liu Financial and Administrative Specialist Sheridan Bishoff Alice Adams Tyler Sanchez Gallery Assistants Natasha Bishop Curatorial & Development Assitant Tere Paniagua Executive Director of Cultural Engagement Image Credits Alice Adams Sara Felice Special Thanks Lola Warck Meister
Lucia Warck-Meister
ARTEMISIA August 29 - October 4, 2019
This exhibition is made possible thanks to the generous support of The College of Arts and Sciences, and the Coalition of Museums and Art Centers at Syracuse University.
Remembering What Doesn’t Let Us Forget Artemisia incites new sensibilities as it asks our memories to contend with their own form, capability and, ultimately, nature. Do they slip away without us noticing them? Do they turn into stretchy spirals sliding at will? Do they age over the unending passing of years or the unstoppable speed of each second? Do they return to us clear reflections of what we may not afford to forget? Do they sneak out and flee even when we barely notice their ephemeral duration? Lucia Warck-Meister invites us on a journey through the corporeality of our lives’ recurrences, both from day to day and from one generation to the next. Never-before-seen and through several innovations, this installation suggests that we consider textures, dimensions, and shapes and that we come to meet, in so doing, with the intricate matter of the relation between identity and memory, between what makes us unique and its reverberations for individuals and collectivities. With media such as porcelain and fabrics, silk and metal-like, Artemisia provokes its public to consider the perceptual link between our memories and individualities. Porcelain magnolias elicit our bodies’ capacities to remember ordinary traces with the totality of our senses. They combine the pleasing sensation of silky porcelain, which allows for delicate petals to be shaped, with the sudden lack of elasticity of the clay porcelain once it starts to dry. Catching the fleeting trace of our fingers upon the clay may be futile since it hardens rather quickly. Worse, it could crack were we not paying conscious attention. Warck-Meister places the porcelain magnolias over a blanket of scented powder, bringing back memories of the flowers’ vitality in their fragrance, piercing, suggestive, and enveloping. Even those memories that lose versatility and speed return with the consistency of powder, grain by grain, but this time around they have become speckles that maintain only fading similarities with their original referents. This exhibit replicates the silky surface of magnolias with red braids hanging in space and time. As they hang, they oppose crinkled metallic shapes shooting upwards. Silver and red interweave an opposition that various cultures, particularly Latin American and Latinx cultures, associate with contrasting affects and desires. Purity, and clarity, stand against the reds that bleed pain and passion, so many times beyond our control. Crimson-turning braids hang suspended as do the knots, weights, and entanglements of whatever we have faced as trauma, injury, or harm. Over its reflective surface, the metallic fabric mirrors the shooting temperature of shiny red shades. What WarckMeister reveals, through this effect, is our memories’ fragility, from which we run with the hope of finding solace at other corners where we seek acceptance instead of discord. Artemisia’s mirroring effect illustrates that social conventions do crumble.
It uncovers their ruse as they try to pass, as real, the reflections that we receive from the world about who we are and what we do. Memories, by contrast, give us back reflections of dispersal, displacement, and motion. For their intensity, reflections bring about unrest. For the ways that they visualize our volatile remembering, they give birth to internal flames or attachments to pain that don’t ever give us enough time for mourning. where we seek acceptance instead of discord. Artemisia’s mirroring effect illustrates that social conventions do crumble. It uncovers their ruse as they try to pass, as real, the reflections that we receive from the world about who we are and what we do. Memories, by contrast, give us back reflections of dispersal, displacement, and motion. For their intensity, reflections bring about unrest. For the ways that they visualize our volatile remembering, they give birth to internal flames or attachments to pain that don’t ever give us enough time for mourning. This installation works with contrasting shades inviting the audience to recall how we invest anxiety, fear, or enthusiasm into our memories. It puts into perspective how the scales of the personal and the collective relate to each other. Ultimately, who could claim ownership over sparks of fear and passion? Once they come into being, as Warck-Meister shows with situations, objects, and shapes, in what ways do memories circulate beyond their own orbit? Could the audience generate novel memories, weaving new braids and undoing the knots on others? The initial inspiration for this installation comes from Italian painter Artemisia Gentileschi. Having been subjected to sexual violence by her mentor, Artemisia continues to demand a switch in our collective and intergenerational memory. Art communities have changed their memories of the artist over the centuries. They are neither static nor frozen in time. Her legacy compels us, in the same fashion in which this installation does, to disentangle the traumatizing knots that assault brought into her life. Warck-Meister channels this turn toward untapped techniques for transmutation—reflection, dispersal, and subtlety—and seeks to expand the present with the possibility of a future that affirms a more wholesome mode of caring for our personal and collective memories. It is this gesture that hints at a critical encounter with the act of remembering. For remembering is, after all, an act of generosity with oneself and others. It certainly demands a faithful attitude that Artemisia enacts and ignites. Dr. Pedro DiPietro Assistant Professor Women’s and Gender Studies Syracuse University
Rememorando Lo Que No Se Deja Olvidar Artemisia desafía nuestras sensibilidades porque provoca que las memorias cuestionen su forma, capacidad y, en última instancia, su propia naturaleza. ¿Se escurren casi sin que nos demos cuenta? ¿Se convierten en espirales elásticos con movilidad propia? ¿Se añejan con el pasar lento de los años o con el ritmo vertiginoso de cada segundo? ¿Pueden devolvernos un reflejo nítido de lo que no quisiéramos olvidar? ¿Se escapan casi furtivamente sin que podamos reconocer ese devenir de tiempo que nunca podemos poseer? Lucia Warck-Meister nos invita a navegar la corporalidad de nuestras recurrencias, tanto cotidianas como intergeneracionales. Con una puesta innovadora e inédita, sugiere que interroguemos texturas, dimensiones, y maleabilidades y, de ese modo, encontrarnos con la irreducible materia de la relación entre identidad y memoria, entre lo que marca nuestra singularidad y su evocación tanto individual como colectiva. Porcelana y géneros, metálicos y sedificados, ofrecen los medios con el que Artemisia nos incita a considerar el vínculo sensorial entre nuestras remembranzas e individualidades. Magnolias de porcelana invocan la capacidad de nuestros cuerpos para memorizar rastros de nuestra cotidianidad con la totalidad de nuestros sentidos. Combinan el placer de una porcelana sedosa, que permite ser moldeada en pétalos delicados, con la sensación casi instantánea de su endurecimiento cuando queda expuesta al aire. La percepción de una traza o huella es endeble ya que la porcelana recibe las impresiones que le hacemos pero, inmediatamente, se torna rígida y, por su delicadeza, puede resquebrarse si no la atendemos con consciencia y cuidado. Las magnolias se posan sobre una mantilla de arena perfumada que rememora la vitalidad de sus perfumes, , persistentes, insinuantes, y envolventes. Aún las memorias que pierden su fluidez y velocidad retornan en su existencia desgranada, convertidas en un detalle L que apenas mantiene una similitud con sus referentes originales. La instalación replica la superficie de seda de las magnolias con trenzas de color rojo intenso que se suspenden en paralelo a figuras corrugadas de textil metálico. Plateado y rojo se conjugan en una oposición que varias culturas, particularmente la latinoamericana y la latina, asocian con afectos y deseos contrapuestos. A la pureza, y su nitidez, se le oponen el sangrado de dolores y pasiones que escapan a nuestro control. Trenzas enrojecidas, quizás en un juego de intensidades, flotan en suspenso con las cargas, los nudos, y enredos de lo que hemos vivido como trauma, lesión, o daño. El textil metálico reproduce la temperatura del lienzo rojo en su superficie espejada. Lo que revela Warck-Meister, con ese efecto, es la fragilidad misma de nuestras memorias, de las que a veces corremos para escabullirnos en otros rincones en los que
quisiéramos encontrar amabilidades en vez de discordias. El efecto de reflejo hace estallar lo que las convenciones sociales pretenden mostrar como un fidedigno testimonio de quienes somos y lo que podemos hacer. Nos devuelve un reflejo disperso, desplazado, removido. Inquieto por su intensidad y también por el modo en que visualiza la volatilidad de nuestro recordar, el reflejo devuelve unas memorias que pueden incitar llamas o permanecer ancladas a dolores que no nos dan espacio ni para hacer su duelo. Los matices de oposición con los que trabaja la muestra invitan al público a rememorar lo que las memorias les hace sentir, con ansiedad, temor, o entusiasmo. Ponen en perspectiva los lazos entre lo personal y lo colectivo. En última instancia, a quiénes les pertenecen esas centellas que descargan dolor y pasión. ¿Una vez manifestadas, como las manifiesta Warck-Meister en situaciones, objetos, y figuras, de qué manera circulan esas memorias más allá del centro de gravedad donde nacieron? ¿Acaso podría el público izar nuevas memorias, tejiendo nuevas trenzas o desanudando otras? Estas es la invitación de la muestra que la artista inicia con una meditación sobre la pintora italiana Artemisia Gentileschi. De allí proviene el título de la instalación. Artemisia reclama con sus obras una renovación de la memoria. Las comunidades artísticas han variado su percepción de la pintora a lo largo de los siglos. No es ni estática ni cristalizada en el tiempo. Del mismo modo en que la instalación lo hace, el legado de Artemisia nos implica para que desatemos esos nudos que la violencia impuso en su vida. Warck-Meister canaliza ese giro perceptual hacia transmutaciones—reflejos, dispersiones, sutilezas—con las cuales el presente amplifica las posibilidades de un futuro que afirme el cuidado integral de la memoria personal y colectiva. Este gesto nos inclina hacia un encuentro crítico con el acto del recuerdo. En última instancia, recordar es un acto de generosidad con sí-mismx y con otrxs. Requiere de una actitud genuina que Artemisa no sólo pone en juego sino que también inspira.
Dr. Pedro DiPietro Profesor Asistente Estudios de Mujeres y Generos Universidad De Siracusa
Lucia Warck Meister installing Artemisia at Point of Contact Gallery
Artist Biography Lucia Warck-Meister holds an MFA from the School of Fine Arts Prilidiano Pueyrredón, Buenos Aires. Her works have been exhibited at the Palm Beach International Biennial, Florida; Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition Bellevue, WA, Museo del Barrio, New York; Museum of the Americas, Washington DC; Griffiss Sculpture Park, Rome, NY; Miura Museum of Art, Matsuyama City, Japan; Briggens Museum, Bergen, Norway, DUMBO Arts Festival, New York; Deutsche Bank Foundation, New York; Piedmont Biennial, Torino, Italy; National Endowment for the Arts, Buenos Aires, Recoleta Cultural Center, Buenos Aires, MAT Tigre Art Museum, Buenos Aires; MUMBAT, Tandil; Timoteo Navarro Museum, Tucumán, Argentina She is the recipient of the following awards: 2019 National Endowment for the Arts Grant; 2017, SACO6 Antofagasta, Chile; 2014, Ibermuseum Prize; 2009 Pollock-Krasner Fellowship, New York; 2007 Visiting Artist at the American Academy in Rome, Italy; in 2006 she won the First Prize at the Biennial of Sculpture in Public Spaces, Palm Beach, Florida. Lucia has been an artist in residence at the ArtCenter SF, Miami; ISLA, Antofagasta, Chile; Sculpture Space, Utica, NY ; School of Visual Arts: Public Art Residency, New York; CAMAC, Marnay-sur-Seine, France; NYFA’s Mentoring Program – New York Foundation for the Arts, NY. www.luciawarckmeister.com
Lucia Warck-Meister Education:
1988 | Professor of Painting, UNA National University of the Arts, Buenos Aires 1989 | Professor of Sculpture, UNA National University of the Arts, Buenos Aires
Awards and Residencies:
2019 | National Endowment for the Arts Grant, Buenos Aires 2017 | SACO6, Sexta Semana de Arte Contemporaneo, Antofagasta, CL 2017 | ISLA, Antofagasta, CL (Artist Residency) 2016 | ArtCenter SF, Miami, FL (Artist Residency) 2014 | Premio Iberoamericano de Educación y Museos 2010 | Public Art Program (commission), City Hall, Summit, NJ 2009 | Pollock - Krasner Foundation Grant, New York, NY 2009 | Artist’s Fellowship, Inc. New York, NY 2009 | Public Art/Summit, NJ, finalist 2008 | camac, Marnay-sur-Seine, FR (Artist Residency) 2008 | NYFA Mentoring Program (Artist Residency) New York, NY 2007 | American Academy in Rome, Visiting Artist, Rome 2007 | Sculpture Space, Utica, NY (Artist Residency) 2006 | Palm Beach Biennale – First Prize for installation The Birth of Venus, Palm Beach, FL 2006 | MTA Arts For Transit, Finalist for 231st Street Station – Broadway Line, Bronx, NY 2005 | School of Visual Arts, Public Art Residency, New York, NY 1999 | Premio a la Creatividad, National Endowment for the Arts, Buenos Aires
1999 | Premio Fundación Amalia Lacroze de Fortabat, Buenos Aires 1998 | Premio Deutsche Bank, Buenos Aires 1996 | Premio Telefónica de Argentina, Buenos Aires 1994 | Premio Alliance Française, Buenos Aires
Solo Exhibitions:
2019 | Artemisia, Point of Contact Gallery, Syracuse University, NY 2018 | L’Alquimista, MUMBAT, Museo de Arte Moderno, Tandil, Buenos Aires 2015 | LILA Gallery, Buenos Aires 2011 | Summit Public Art Program, site-specific installation for City Hall, Summit, NJ 2009 | Sherezade, DUMBO Festival, Brooklyn, NY, sponsored by Two Trees Management 2008 | CAMAC, Marnay-sur-Seine, France 2007 | Pan American Projects, Miami, FL 2007 | ArtInBeach - Nextel, organized by artinlobby, Buenos Aires 2006 | Sara Zanin Gallery, Rome 2005 | Haim Chanin Fine Arts, New York, NY 2004 | Annina Nosei Gallery, New York, NY 2003 | Pending, Haim Chanin Fine Arts, New York, NY 2003 | Flight, 55 Washington St, DUMBO, Brooklyn, NY 2001 | Fondo Nacional de Las Artes, Buenos Aires 2001 | Diana Lowenstein Fine Arts, Miami, FL 1999 | Diana Lowenstein Fine Arts, Buenos Aires 1998 |Centro Cultural Recoleta, Buenos Aires
Group Exhibitions:
2019 | Lineas de Fuga, Centro Cultural Español CCE Miami, FL 2019 | Salon Nacional, MUMBAT, Museo Municipal de Bellas Artes, Tandil, AR 2019 | Textile Festival V Edition, Buenos Aires 2019 | Cefiro Photography Award, Buenos Aires 2018 | Materia Prima, Museo MAR, Mar del Plata, Buenos Aires, AR 2017 | Amor: Decadencia y Resistencia, SACO6, Antofagasta, CL Alma, Asociación Argentina de Medicina, Buenos Aires Black Friday, Cecilia Caballero Arte Contemporáneo Gallery, Buenos Aires 2016 | Salon del Bicentenario, Timoteo Navarro Museum, Tucuman, AR EFEMERIDES, Centro Cultural Borges, Buenos Aires Salón de Arte Sacro, MUMBAT, Tándil, AR 2015 | Sólo Tu Sombra -video and installationCassará Foundation, Buenos Aires 2014 | Qué ven los que no ven?, Borges Cultural Center, Buenos Aires Doble Juego, Botanical Garden, Buenos Aires Biennale del Piamonte, Argentinian Artists, Live In, Palermo, Buenos Aires 2013 | Argentine Photography, PanAmerican Projects, Miami, FL BAM on TOUR 2013 CONTEMPORARY PHOTOBOX, Torino, IT Ultraleve, Open Bay, Mar del Plata, AR 2012 | Festival Internacional de Arte y Cultura Antártica, Museo de Arte de Tigre Video Sinmurallas, Cádiz Regionø Festival Latino de Videoarte Centro de Iniciativas Culturales, Sevilla Video Festival MARCO Museum of Contemporary Art, Vigo, ES Festival de Video CLOSE UP VALLARTA, Cuale Cultural Center, MX
Regionø Festival Latino de Videoarte, CanariasGovernment, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, ES Contemporary Art Gallery Regionø Festival Latino de Videoarte, Instituto Cervantes, London 2011 | Regionø Festival Latino de Videoarte de Nueva York, King Juan Carlos I Center, NYU, New York 4to.Festival Internacional De VideoArte De Camagüey 2011, CU Recursos de Luz, Video Latinoamericano, JEX Jardín de las Esculturas Xalapa, Veracruz, MX Diez Miradas, Centro de Las Artes, Celaya, Guanajato, MX 2010 – 2015 | Grifiss Sculpture Park, Rome, NY 2010 | Cuatro Visiones del Bicentenario, Museo Mural Diego Rivera, México D.F. DUMBO Arts Festival, High Tide, site-specific performance, Brooklyn, NY Waterfall, installation, Governor’s Island Art Fair, Governor’s Island, NY Altered, The Art Gallery, University of West Florida, Pensacola, FL Don’t Call Me Pretty: Women in Art, Pan American Projects, Miami, FL 59 Second Video Festival, Spectre Gallery, Brooklyn, NY 2009 | Making It / 2008 New York Foundation for the Arts Mentoring Program for Immigrant Artists, Deutsche Bank, New York, NY The Exquisite Corpse, Paul Robeson Galleries Rutgers University, Newark, NJ Summit Public Art Project –finalist for public art project - Summit, NY 2008 – 2010 | Grifiss Sculpture Park, Rome, NY 2008 Haim Chanin Fine Arts, New York Zemos 98, Video Festival, Sevilla Project 59 Video Festival, Galeri Petronas, Kuala Lumpur Project 59 Video Festival, Research Laboratory, University of Texas, Austin
2006 | Blueroom and Video Projects, American Academy in Rome Art Under the Glass, Macy’s New York, Windows Project, New York Canarias Mediafest, Gran Canaria Palm Beach International Sculpture Biennale, Cultural Campus, Wellington, FL MTA Arts For Transit, Finalist for 231st Street StationBroadway Line, Bronx, NY Bellevue International Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition, Bellevue, WA 2006 | Black and White Abstractions, Haim Chanin Fine Arts, New York, NY The New York Museum of Water, New York, NY Invisible Cities (video), Blue Room, Rome, IT Architecture of a Dream (video), River’s Edge Film Festival, Paducah, Kentucky Hell on Reels, Astoria Moving Picture Festival, NY 59 Seconds Video Festival, New York, NY Plugged In Fest III, Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockport, Maine 2004 | Sculpture in Four Dimensions, Museo de las Americas, OEA, Washington DC Premio Telefonica, Fundación Telefónica de Argentina, Buenos Aires 2003 | Summer Reverie, Haim Chanin Fine Arts, NY Group Exhibition, Annina Nosei Gallery, New York, NY 2002 | Parsing The Line, The Work Space, NY Group Show, Annina Nosei Gallery, New York, NY 2001 | Fondo Nacional de la Artes, “Awards 1998-2000”, Recoleta Cultural Center, Buenos Aires 2000 | S-Files Biennial, El Museo del Barrio, New York, NY Miura Museum of Art Museum of LatinAmerican Art, Matsuyama City, JP Promo-Arte Gallery, Tokyo Visible-Invisible, Nohra Haime Gallery, New York, NY
1999 | Kiron Espace, Paris Briggens Museum, Bergen 1998 | Premio Deutsche Bank, Buenos Aires Fundacion Telefónica de Argentina, Buenos Aires 1997 | Fondo Nacional de las Artes, Buenos Aires 1996 | Fondo Telefónica de Promoción a la Pintura Joven, Buenos Aires
Books/Magazines:
La Boca del Infierno, in collaboration with poet Maria Negroni, Mantis Editores, MX 2009 Reinvenciones de La Voz, Revista TodaVía, Fundación OSDE, Nr. 16, Buenos Aires, 2007 New York Artists Backstage by Michiko Rico Nosé, Graphics HA, JP, 2006 Exilios Microfisuras Nr 15, Vigo, ES, 2001
Collections:
The Bass Museum of Art, Miami, FL Marvin and Ruth Sackner Collection, Miami, FL Amalia Lacroze de Fortabat Collection, Buenos Aires, Argentina MEIAC –Museo Extremeño e Iberoamericano de Arte Contemporaneo-, Badajoz, ES Deutsche Bank Art Foundation The Taplin Collection, The Sagamore Hotel Video Lounge, Miami, FL Royal Caribbean Art Foundation, Miami, FL Fundación Telefonica de Argentina Private Collections in Argentina, USA, Switzerland, UK and France.
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