Abstraction in Action Esvin Alarcón Lam, tepeu choc, Diana de Solares, Darío Escobar, Patrick Hamilton: Overlap/Traslape https://abstractioninaction.com/happenings/esvin-alarcon-lam-tepeu-choc-diana-de-solares-dario-escobar-patrick-hamilton-overlaptraslape/

5e818e5c898945c173af0bf754b6f87a-550x400

Artists: Esvin Alarcón Lam, tepeu choc, Diana de Solares, Darío Escobar, Patrick Hamilton.

Overlap/ Traslape
Opens June 1, 2016
The 9.99 Gallery 
Guatemala City, Guatemala

Three dialogues are established with three different processes that relate to the idea of overlapping and superimposing elements, time, generations, and actions:

The first dialogue is a interaction in relation to mostly urban landscape in combination with the materials used.

Alejandro Almanza Pereda presents “Horror Vacui (Escena invernal No.1)” [Winter Scene No.1] (2014). From a snowy landscape, Almanza Pereda builds a cement structure that extends beyond the work’s frame to cover the entire wall. The seemingly accidental look of the quasi-action-painting-type dripping acquires a new connotation due to the material and the space extending beyond the painting.

In the same manner, Esvin Alarcón Lam’s  “Desplazamiento No.9” [Displacement No.9] (2016) also plays with the space outside the frame. Like a passageway leading to another dimension, the work created out of bus parts establishes an  association between the urban landscape and public transportation.

This dialogue ends with tepeu choc’s “Registration No.1” (2016) made out of the plastic material utilized in the informal economy. In it, a series of cut outs call to mind construction tool silhouettes.

The second dialogue is established by the works’s geometric elements such as line, figure, and volume.

Darío Escobar’s “Quetzalcoatl IV” (2004) plays with notions of stability between the undulating bicycle tires, as they surrender their circular shape to gravity laws, and the bronze counterweights.

The piece by Luis Diaz, “The Gukumatz in person” (1971), like Escobar’s work, references the (serpent) deity’s undulating movement: this time in its Quiché appellation, and in a more stable manner derived from flexible wooden sections that adapt to different crawling movements. These sharp forms make a return to verticality in “Chuzo” (2012-2016), a construction-tool-like work by Patrick Hamilton.

In “Sin título” (Untitled) (2015), a drawing by Diana de Solares, assorted color layers generate movement related to air and the kind found in children’s pinwheels. Thus, varying elements of nature come together and overlap in this work.

Finally, the third overlapping dialogue emerges between a spiritual perspective  and the physical body. The indigo and turquoise of Sandra Monterroso’s cotton yarn, “Expoliada III” (Despoiled III) (2016) series, colors associated with water, represent the varying tonalities of rainfall through time.

Meanwhile, in Isabel Ruiz’s “Vuelo de las Mariposas” (Flight of Butterflies) (2016 ), the set of opposing crutches reminds us of the body’s fragility: The before-and-after of a transition between what is natural and what the fire has consumed.

In Diego Sagastume’s photographs, we return to the urban landscape of painted walls and open skies whose tonalities show the passage of time, also found in Christian Lord’s “(Mira)anda IV” ((Look)go IV) (2015), a work that through wordplay, invites us to contemplation and to walk, suggested by the circle’s forward movement.

 

July 8, 2016 Esvin Alarcón Lam: Línea de horizonte, o la tensión en múltiples puntos https://abstractioninaction.com/happenings/esvin-alarcon-lam-linea-de-horizonte-o-la-tension-en-multiples-puntos/

unnamed-1

Artist: Esvin Alarcón Lam

Línea de horizonte, o la tensión en múltiples puntos
September 3, 2015
The 9.99 Gallery
Guatemala City, Guatemala

Solo show by Esvin Alarcón Lam.

September 17, 2015 Esvin Alarcón Lam https://abstractioninaction.com/artists/esvin-alarcon-lam/

I construct abstractions with found materials that belong to my context, which also provide information since rust and visible aging suggest a hint of irony. At the same time, and through simple gestures such as re-composition, re-contextualization, repetition, etc., I establish a visual dialogue between materiality and historical art movements. In general, these works take specific events from social, cultural and/or political realities as their starting point.

I consider my works to be situated between painting, drawing and sculpture. I develop their narratives by overlaying residues in our imaginary: pop culture, modern painting and South American kinetic art. Through a quality of abstraction and a sense of materiality, the viewer can relate to these works in different ways, allowing each individual to have a unique experience.

Mi práctica artística se relaciona con las ideas y las formas materiales de la precariedad de la vida contemporánea, la memoria colectiva, el paso del tiempo y la arquitectura urbana, creando imágenes que evocan la modernidad a través de una perspectiva residual.

 
Traducido del inglés

Construyo abstracciones con materiales encontrados que provienen de mi contexto, que también proporciona información en sí, como la oxidación y el envejecimiento visibles que sugieren una pizca de ironía. Al mismo tiempo, y a través de gestos simples como la re-composición, re-contextualización, repetición, etc., establezco un diálogo visual entre materialidad y movimientos artísticos históricos. En general, estas obras toman forma de eventos desde las realidades sociales, culturales y/o políticas como punto de partida.

Considero que mis obras se sitúan entre la pintura, el dibujo y la escultura. Desarrollo sus narrativas mediante la superposición de los residuos de nuestro imaginario: la cultura pop, la pintura moderna y el arte cinético sudamericano. A través de una cualidad de la abstracción y de un sentido de la materialidad, el espectador puede relacionarse con estas obras de diferentes maneras, lo que permite a cada individuo tener una experiencia única.

Selected Biographical Information

Education / Training

Prizes / Fellowships

Group Exhibitions

Collections

Links

August 24, 2015