Isabel Croxatto Galería takes part in Latin American Galleries Now, a new initiative powered by Artsy featuring members from the gallery associations of Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico, running from 19 July to 9 August on artsy.net.
Isabel Croxatto Galería's proposal deals with social and intimate bodies in tension in Latin America, presenting a selection of unique artworks by world-renowned and emerging artists from the south of the world: Chiachio & Giannone, Johans Peñaloza, Marino Balbuena, Paloma Castillo, Víctor Castillo, and Wladymir Bernechea.
Through a curatorial perspective from the south of the world, the selection of pieces gathers a unique series of paintings, embroidery, tapestry and mosaics. These artworks address contingent issues in Latin America and the world, involving gender, culture, domestic intimacy and social and political events, subverted through universal aesthetics such as pop, queer, muralism, comics and manga. Each artist tensions their medium, bringing a unique vision of these issues and the means through which they express them.
The Argentinean duo Chiachio & Giannone question the patriarchal forms of family through colourful textile work, presenting themselves and their pet/son/dog Piolín in the tradition of family portraits, subverting the media and blurring the lines of gender-assigned tasks, like embroidery. Fellow Argentinean artist Marino Balbuena goes beyond, with a tufting-machine embroidered tapestry depicting colourful and abstracted male orgies, Gangbang. On the other hand, Chilean textile artist Paloma Castillo develops a series of hand-embroidered pieces which explore current world affairs, including social and political violence and gender issues, through symbolism and raw sarcasm.
The emerging Chilean artist Johans Peñaloza explores the scenes left behind in Santiago after the massive protests that shook Chile in October 2019, capturing the destruction and portraying it in black and white acrylic on raw canvas, with brushstrokes possessed by the intensity of the moment. Black and white oil on canvas is essential in Wladymir Bernechea's work which - through thick strokes and pictorial paste - explores the sensitive realm of emotions in stripped-down scenes featuring pop and animé-influenced characters in solitary situations.
World-renowned Chilean artist Víctor Castillo seeks revenge on capitalism and the 1940s-1950s American Way of Life, using this era as the raw material for his unique and recognisable aesthetic that combines the vintage animation cartoons style with ironic and dark undertones. Through colourful acrylic on canvas paintings, Castillo subverts characters from the Golden Era of American animation and Hollywood, lashing out a harsh but gleeful critique of the system.
These artists present questions regarding the body, the social and human territory, current affairs and gender issues while examining and putting in tension artistry and craftsmanship.
Visit Isabel Croxatto Galería at Latin American Galleries Now on Artsy.
Isabel Croxatto Galería is a long-time Artsy partner and a member of AGAC, Association of Contemporary Art Galleries of Chile.
