THE ARMORY SHOW

For this show, RGR aims to promote an intergenerational dialogue between modern and contemporary artists who either pioneered the language of abstraction or refer to it according to new social configurations, including ethno-poetical research on the archaic past, the exploration of feminine subjectivity, a critical response to the idea of modernity as universal progress and the examination of the pervasive role of technology in the construction of reality.

The booth features historical works by Jesús Rafael Soto such as Torre vibrante blanco y negro (1968); two pieces belonging to the Physichromie series by Carlos Cruz Diez; or Tejedura 90/33 (1990) by the outstanding Gego or the ’+’ and ‘x’ signature paintings by Ding Yi, the groundbreaking Chinese abstractionist. Mexican feminist pioneer and post-conceptual artist Magali Lara, whose practice explores different configurations of intimacy, brings an exquisite selection of bidimensional works in which she tests the limits of abstraction.

The legacy of global modernisms is the subject for Pedro Zylbersztajn’s contemporary meditations and Carolina Otero’s reliefs, both inspired on the idea of progress and history. Pedro Zylbersztajn presents a video composed on an archive of architectural spirals and a laser-cut disk with a distorted speech that address the relationship between abstraction and legibility. In Carolina Otero’s wall installation, an invented alphabet becomes an architectural ornament. Her black and white photomontages aim to create a bridge between nature and poetic abstraction.

Karina Aguilera Skvirsky brings performance art to a post-ethnographic choreography through a series of collages in which her body interacts with foundational stones from unknown archeological sites in Ecuador. By contrast, Diego Perez created sculptures that merge imaginary interiors shaped by archaic architectural forms. Finally, Francisco Muñoz’s ceramics blend machine-like structures with Pre-Columbian artifacts.