"Ulysses", 2002, inkjet print, 280 cm x 442 cm Pablo Vargas Lugo Star Foreshortening Massimo Audiello is pleased to present the first solo show by Pablo Vargas Lugo in New York City. Pablo Vargas Lugo is one of the most exiting contemporary voices from Mexico City. His work has been shown extensively in Mexico, Europe and the USA. A foreshortening is a special category of drawing, one in which the perspective chosen by the artist disrupts the objects proportions. Making a foreshortening look right is one of the great feats of a good draftsman, one in which even the most precise observation can render awkward results; thus it becomes necessary for the artist to massage the lines, to bring them in compliance with their inner harmony without putting them to much at odds with their model. The piece that provides the name for this exhibition is a large, nondescript, rather battered cardboard box inside of which is projected an animation of two flag-like stars that seem to be in the middle of a passionate exchange. In spite of the seemingly obvious implications of mobility and identity implied by the pairing of flags and cardboard, the humorous twist of the piece makes it much less about homelessness than about the secret life of grand ideals. The series of paper cutouts representing maps or charts torn by an invisible hand or mysterious catastrophe continue Vargas Lugo's involvement with this technique, which in this case achieves an unusual degree of depth through the almost chaotic layering of intricately cut individual pieces. Finally, a large format print of the space probe Ulysses stuck in the branches of a tree, almost embraced by them as if one had grown around the other, puts the rest of the work under an almost allegorical light, though also relishing the abstract qualities of both objects, making us wonder why we hadn't seen them together before. (Text: Pedro Barachena) March 15 - April 20, 2002 Massimo Audiello Gallery 526 West 26th Street New York, NY 10001 t. +1 212 675 9082 f. +1 212 675 8680 Mail audiello@msn.com |