 Luis González Palma Jerarquías de Intimidad (Hierarchies of Intimacy) Robert Mann Gallery is pleased to announce the exhibition "Luis González Palma: Jerarquías de Intimidad" (Hierarchies of Intimacy). The exhibition will include approximately twenty sepia-toned silver gelatin prints coated in resin. Luis González Palma is one of Latin America's most important contemporary photographers. Born in Guatemala in 1957 and trained as an architect, he now lives in Argentina. He began his career as an artist in the 1980's, photographing native Mayan Indians in theatrical settings, often adorned with objects related to their cultural heritage: wings, flowers, crowns, and masks. The resulting portraits are dignified, almost regal; Palma's subjects gaze outward with a sense of wisdom that seems centuries old. His technique augments the historical roots of the work; Palma distresses the amber patina of each photograph by folding, scratching, stitching, and painting, often adding elements such as cloth and kodalith to make the artwork unique. Ultimately, Palma's photographs "transcend time and place, suggesting that mythicism, beauty and sorrow, and the human condition are his ultimate subject matter" (John Wood, "Poems of Sorrow"). Luis González Palma's newest body of work, "Jerarquías de Intimidad", focuses on the complexity of communication found in all intimate relationships - these pieces are less explicitly rooted in the troubled history of his native Guatemala. Many of the images suggest a larger drama that has been interrupted: connections lost, broken, or rediscovered. As with Palma's previous work, "Jerarquías de Intimidad" is marked by a lexicon of symbols: desire, solitude, grief and pain manifest themselves as physical objects, talismans that include stones, knives, skulls, thorns, chandeliers and chairs. These are the keys that grant access to the subconscious world of Luis González Palma's images, a world that reflects the hierarchies of intimacy upon which our lives and relationships are built. Luis González Palma was exhibited in the 49th Annual Venice Biennale in 2001. His work is also included in numerous museums such as the Art Institute of Chicago; the Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris; the Fogg Museum at Harvard University, Boston; the High Museum of Art, Atlanta; and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Publications include "Poems of Sorrow" (Arena Editions, 1999) and "Il Silencio de Maya" (Peliti Associati, 1998). Exhibition: May 13 - July 2, 2004 Gallery hours: Tue-Sat 11am - 6pm Robert Mann Gallery 210 Eleventh Avenue (between 24th & 25th Streets, Floor 10) USA-New York, NY 10001 Telephone +1 212 989 7600 Fax +1 212 989 2947 www.robertmann.com |
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