The Projective Eye Gallery at UNC Charlotte Center City will present ¡VIVA!, an exhibition of work by contemporary Latin American artists, January 19 through February 25, with an opening reception on January 19.
¡VIVA! is a subset of a larger exhibition curated by Randy Shull and Hedy Fischer from their personal collection. Shull and Fischer have lived and worked in Mexico, a place, they say, “where the most recent technical innovation clashes with Pre-Hispanic apparitions at nearly every intersection.” The couple now divides their time between homes in Merida, Mexico, and Asheville, NC, where they operate the art space 22 London. ¡VIVA! was on view there this fall.
Projective Eye Gallery curator Crista Cammaroto has chosen 10 of the original 19 ¡VIVA! artists to present at the Projective Eye Gallery: Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Jorge Méndez Blake, Pablo Rasgado, Tania Franco Klein, Abraham Cruzvillegas, Gabriel de la Mora, Moris (Israel Meza Moreno), Jose Dávila, Santiago Sierra, and Javier Téllez.
“Perhaps one of our greatest national treasures are our neighbors in Mexico,” says Cammaroto, “a culture that allows people to kiss courageously in the park during a siesta that is an integral part of the workday, or celebrate death in a way we still don’t understand, but should.” In recognition of the growing Latino population in Charlotte – much of it with Mexican roots – multiple local arts organizations are participating in the vibrant 2017-18 initiative In Focus/En Foque, funded by Bank of America. The collaborative exhibitions feature photographic works by more than 50 artists from Mexico and the United States that explore a broad range of topics, from identity to globalism to borders. With ¡VIVA!, the Projective Eye Gallery extends this community conversation through different artistic mediums and voices.
The artists represented in ¡VIVA! tackle contemporary issues from multiple perspectives and demonstrate, say Shull and Fischer, “connections between the Pre-Hispanic and the stubborn utopian ideals of modernism.” All of them have international stature, and many have work in major museum collections, such as the Museum of Modern Art, the Tate Modern, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Guggenheim Museum in New York, and the Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid.
“¡VIVA! is exactly what it proclaims to be,” says Cammaroto. “Life in the big sense – a pluralistic deconstructive reconstruction, a questioning of power, an engagement with the stuff that is all of us.”
The opening reception on Friday, January 19, will take place from 6:00 to 8:00 pm and include a talk by UNC Charlotte Associate Professor of Art History Angela Rajagopalan, a specialist in Pre-Columbian and early colonial art and architecture of Mexico.