Monochrome Undone – A project of Abstraction in Action

24.10 / 01.04 2015
SPACE Collection, Ivrine, California

The SPACE Collection, formerly Sayago & Pardon, is currently presenting its inaugural exhibition, Monochrome Undone. Monochrome Undone showcases the contemporary monochrome in Latin America and features 68 artworks by 36 international artists. The show includes diverse media, three-dimensional sculptural installations, found and reimagined objects, video and site-specific installation, as well as a 240-page bilingual catalogue.
The monochrome as a focus in the SPACE Collection began in a spontaneous form and soon became a systematic field of research. This exhibition is about the contemporary monochrome in Latin America. The monochrome is one of the most elusive and complex art forms of modern and contemporary art. If we think about its origins or meaning, we find that the monochrome is many contradictory things. It is neither a movement nor a category; it is not an “ism” or a thing. It may be painting as object, the material surface of the work itself, the denial of perspective or narrative, or anything representational. The monochrome may be a readymade, a found object, or an environment—anything in which a single color dominates. The monochrome can be critical and unstable, especially when it dialogues critically or in tension with modernism. This exhibition is organized into four different themes: “The Everyday Monochrome,” “The White Monochrome,” “The Elusive Monochrome” and “The Transparent Monochrome.” These themes have been conceived to create context and suggest interpretations that otherwise might be illegible; they may overlap at times, pointing to the multiplicity of content in many of the works. The unclassifiable and variable nature of the monochrome in Latin America today is borne of self-criticality and from unique Latin contexts, existing within its own specificity and conceptual urgency.
Artists in this exhibition include Ricardo Alcaide, Alejandra Barreda, Andrés Bedoya, Emilio Chapela, Eduardo Costa, Danilo Dueñas, Magdalena Fernández, Valentina Liernur, Marco Maggi, Manuel Mérida, Gabriel de la Mora, Miguel Angel Ríos, Lester Rodríguez, Eduardo Santiere, Emilia Azcárate, Marta Chilindrón, Bruno Dubner, Rubén Ortíz-Torres, Fidel Sclavo, Renata Tassinari, Georgina Bringas, Abraham Cruzvillegas, Thomas Glassford, José Luis Landet, Jorge de León, Bernardo Ortiz, Martin Pelenur, Teresa Pereda, Pablo Rasgado, Ricardo Rendón, Santiago Reyes Villaveces, Mariela Scafati, Gabriel Sierra, Jaime Tarazona, Adán Vallecillo, Horacio Zabala.
Curated by Cecilia Fajardo-Hill

The catalogue Monochrome Undone accompanies the exhibition, with texts by Cecilia Fajardo-Hill and Carlos E. Palacios.

Visiting hours of the exhibition and collection are on the first Tuesday of every month, by appointment only.