By Alma Ruiz
Essays by Alma Ruiz, Henri Focillon
Poetics of the Handmade features a group of artists based in Latin America whose works of art are made by the artists’ own hands. While many of the artists, contemporaries tend toward a “post-studio” approach—with assistants producing their work—this group explores the close relationship that exists between a person and his or her craft. The artists, interest in transformation and process has led them to produce works that are painstakingly handcrafted from a wide range of materials. They have found poetry in the depiction of quotidian objects and in the powerful resonance of small actions. Included in the exhibition are Eduardo Abaroa (Mexico), Magdalena Atria (Chile), Mónica Bengoa (Chile), Fernando Bryce (Peru), Darío Escobar (Guatemala), Máximo González (Argentina), Marco Maggi (Uruguay), and Livia Marin (Chile). Presenting widely differing approaches, the eight artists will be represented by large-scale installations and select bodies of work. While Atria, Escobar, and Bryce show recent work, Abaroa, Bengoa, and González present new pieces created for this occasion.
This catalogue accompanied the exhibition Poetics of the Handmade, at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, April – August 2007.
Hardcover, 119 pages
Published by MOCA
