Daily Abstractions

Body-Nature / Home-Street

Body-Nature, SPACE Collection
17666 Fitch, Irvine, CA
September 9, 2017 - January 22, 2018
Home-Street, Begovich Gallery
800 N. St. College Blvd, Fullerton, CA
September 9, 2017 - December 15, 2017

Daily Abstractions, a two venue exhibition, will offer a thought-provoking perspective about contemporary abstract art in Latin America.

Mounted in collaboration with California State University, Fullerton Begovich Gallery, the exhibition will feature mixed media works, installations, assemblages, sculptures and videos, made with found objects and materials, fabric and commodity articles. Whether through appropriation or recycling of materials and objects from popular or industrial culture, or in projects dealing directly with social, cultural, conceptual, or ideological issues, these works constitute dynamic forms of abstraction inserted into everyday life in Latin America.

  • Body

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    Body

    This theme includes artworks that incorporate objects and materials such as jeans, Mayan textiles, sweaters, shoe laces, gloves, and clothing, which establish a dynamic relationship between abstraction and our body. Also this theme encompasses interactive work and performance videos that actively engage the spectator.

    Maria Ezcurra, "Red Top", from the series "Body of Work: Stripes", 2010 Fabric and pins, Image credit: Courtesy of the artist
  • Street

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    Street

    This theme involves art works that are either embedded in daily activities taking place in outdoor arenas, either urban, suburban, or natural environment, that serve as context or backdrop to our lives.

    Pia Camil, "Espectacular telón", 2013, Hand dyed and stitched canvas, Image credit: Courtesy of the artist and OMR, Mexico
  • Nature

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    Nature

    This theme encompasses art pieces which are made with natural materials such as butterfly wings, egg shells, and wool; as well as including direct references to landscape, the phases of the day such as the sunrise and the sunset, plants, and water.

    María Fernanda Cardoso, "Butterfly Drawing Blue", 2003, Archival butterfly wings, acrylic, silicone, and metal.
  • Home

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    Home

    This theme will encompass works that refer to materials and objects that are commonly related to the home, ranging from construction materials, the abode itself, and commodity articles of daily life.

    Mariangeles Soto-Diaz, "Consumption #002 [UPC bar codes of food packaging, family of three, eleven months]", from the series "Consumption", 2010, UPC bar codes / wood panel, Image credit: SPACE Collection, Maxwell Rivas

The exhibition’s four themes— Body and Nature at SPACE and Home and Street at CSU Fullerton—will anchor a dialogue between abstraction and daily life. The exhibition is curated by Cecilia Fajardo-Hill, the Chief Curator at the SPACE Collection. A bilingual catalogue will be published to accompany Daily Abstractions.

The exhibition Daily Abstractions: Body – Nature/Home – Street aims to offer a thought-provoking perspective regarding the dynamic field of contemporary abstraction in Latin America. We propose abstraction as an expanded field of reality, one that is in direct dialogue with it. The four themes of the exhibition— Body, Nature, Home, and Street— will anchor a dialogical interchange between abstraction and daily life.

In Latin America, abstraction is often a strategy of critical interrogation of the social, the political arenas, and culture. A vital form of abstraction is inserted in everyday life, whether through appropriation or recycling of materials and objects from popular or industrial culture, or in projects dealing directly with social, cultural, conceptual, or ideological issues.

Abstraction, particularly in Latin America, can be seen as an area of resistance different from utopianism at the beginning of the 20th century. Yasmil Raymond has stated meaningfully that “an abstract resistance, in its broader sense, is the artwork that refuses an idealistic narrative of normalcy while it questions the commodity product with the barricade of contradictions and irreverence. ” Supporting this perspective, abstraction can be seen as an investigation derived from the ideological, symbolic, and physical reality of today. It is charged with content and references to the real world, not in opposition or negation of it.

In the expansive field of abstraction directly related to popular and industrial culture, the categories or modes of abstraction are either juxtaposed or their limits are blurred, making it impossible or even counterproductive to define them or separate them. Since popular culture in Latin America is not dictated by the canonical notion of pop, which is associated to mass media, consumerism and the entertainment industry; artists address popular and mass culture by expanding and questioning the “pop” arena as a hybrid cultural subject that coexists in contemporary Latin American culture. In this exhibition, the term “daily” denotes hybrid cultures stemming from the coexistence of cultural, popular, and industrial traditions from disparate economic realities in the continent.

1 Yasmil Raymond. ‘Contending with Comfort: The Possibility of an Abstract Resistance’, in Abstract Resistance, The Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, 2010, pp.16-17

Daily Abstractions: Body–Nature/Home–Street is part of Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA, a far-reaching and ambitious exploration of Latin American and Latino art in dialogue with Los Angeles, taking place from September 2017 through January 2018 at more than 60 cultural institutions across Southern California. Pacific Standard Time is an initiative of the Getty. The presenting sponsor is Bank of America.

The SPACE Collection is committed to inspire and expand the understanding of Latin American art in a global context through its collection of post 90s contemporary abstract art from Latin America, via the establishment and support of broad philanthropic initiatives.

Abstraction in Action is a broad and dynamic platform dedicated to the promotion and research of contemporary abstract art from Latin America since the 1990s seeking to activate the field and foster new perspectives.

Abstraction in Action is a Restoration Media philanthropic arts initiative that provides context, information and resources in the field through its interactive database of contemporary abstract artists, publications, exhibitions and projects.

  • Sammy Sayago Co-Founder
  • Nicholas Pardon Co-Founder
  • Gregory Attaway Director
  • Cecilia Fajardo-Hill Chief Curator
  • Maxwell Rivas Registrar
  • Carlos Garcia Editorial Designer
  • Spencer Johnston, Esq. General Counsel

The Cal State Fullerton exhibition Design program’s main focus is to prepare graduate students for academic life, and/or to work in a leadership role in a museum, gallery, or design firm. The program features both conceptual study and the most hands-on experience of any graduate museum studies or exhibition design program in the United States. Individual students work as a team alongside experienced professionals to select, design, install, light and generate supportive interpretive material for exhibitions in the Begovich Gallery. Most of these exhibitions are accompanied by extensive exhibition catalogs produced in conjunction with graphic design students and faculty.

Begovich Gallery

It is the mission of the Cal State Fullerton Begovich Gallery to collect art and present exhibitions that contribute to the experience of learning about and better understanding visual culture. The regional focus of the exhibitions is Southern California, but also includes national and international projects that merit scholarly attention.

  • Dale Merrill Dean, College of the Arts
  • Jade Jewett Chair, Department of Visual Arts
  • Mike McGee Director, Nicholas and Lee Begovich Gallery
  • Jacqueline Bunge Gallery Programs Curator
  • Marty Lorigan Preparator