Upstairs Gallery: Embajada Presents Futuro Modular
Artists Kenny Rivero, Chemi Rosado-Seijo, Claudia Pena Salinas, Manuel Mendoza Sánchez, Curtis Talwst Santiago, Rebecca Adorno, Nobutaka Aozaki, ASMA, Alejandro Lafontant, Basica TV, Jose Luis Vargas, Antoine Carbonne, Adriana Martinez, Natalia Martinez, Guanina Cotto, Mariana Murcia, Gabriella Torres Ferrer, Dalton Gata, Las Nietas de Nono, Jorge Gonzalez
Dates10 November 2019 – 12 January 2020
Installation Views
Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
EMBAJADA presents
Futuro Modular
Curated by Christopher Rivera
ASMA, Rebecca Adorno, Nobutaka Aozaki, Básica TV, Antoine Carbonne, Guanina Cotto, Dalton Gata, Jorge González, Alejandro Lafontant, Adriana Martinez, Natalia Martínez, Mariana Murcia, Las Nietas de Nonó, Kenny Rivero, Chemi Rosado-Seijo, Claudia Peña Salinas, Manuel Mendoza Sánchez, Curtis Talwst Santiago, Gabriella Torres-Ferrer, Jose Luis Vargas
November 10 — January 12, 2020
Opening Reception: Sunday, November 10, 6—8pm
Embajada presents Futuro Modular, a group exhibition curated by Christopher Rivera.
The portrayal of the future in western culture is in constant flux, an ongoing imaginary construction, assembled by memories or ideas of what that future could look like. The once technicolor optimism of the sixties and seventies which included visiting aliens, flying cars or a holiday to Mars gives way to a more cynical and imaginative vision of the future, rendered in muted tones of sepia or dark silver green. Ridley Scott’s 1982 dystopian science fiction film Blade Runner, set in what was imagined to be our present day, November 2019, featured flying cars, intelligent robots, a crumbling climate and an existential crisis. While this vision of the future still feels farfetched, we find ourselves inching closer to this imagined future. Video calls, 3D printing, and automatic cars are technologies current today that seemed impossible only fifteen years ago, meanwhile urgent climate changes threaten the earth’s survival. As Albert Einstein stated, “I never think of the future, it comes soon enough.”
Futuro Modular brings together a varied group of artists that help to create a fictional DIY experience and installation that ruminates on the idea of future. The exhibition uses the second floor of the gallery as an imaginary spaceship, a vehicle idea that inherently bears the marks of a progressive society. A spaceship’s contents, in this case the artworks, as well as the motives of its occupants, the artists, imagine an ambiguous and open-ended future, suspending absolute terms of salvation and destruction.
Text by Christopher Rivera
Works
Lucky Competitive Cats
Nobutaka Aozaki
fortune cat statues
filtro
ASMA
2019 · graphite
the mirror itself
ASMA
2019 · pyrographed banak wood
my kind of dog
Antoine Carbonne
2019 · pencil and pastel on canvas
untitled (angry)
Antoine Carbonne
2019 · brush pen
soft speed
Antoine Carbonne
2019 · acrylic
Buenas Noticias en el 2093
Guanina Cotto
2019 · mixed media
Personal Data Mine 001 (Credit Card)
Gabriella Torres Ferrer
2018 · credit card
Marketvalue 005 (Energy drink)
Gabriella Torres Ferrer
2019 · aluminum can
Co2 Marketvalue 003 (Green Cola)
Gabriella Torres Ferrer
2019 · aluminum can
BTC £
Gabriella Torres Ferrer
2019 · British money
The heat death of the universe
Rebecca Adorno
2019 · cement
Isn't the World Just a Great Big Pyramid Scheme (Allow)
Gabriella Torres Ferrer
2019 · electroluminescent panel
Untitled
Dalton Gata
2019 · acrylic on canvas
Calendario Antillano (Antillean Calendar)
Jorge Gonzalez
2016 · digital photograph mounted in wooden frame
Untitled
Alejandro Lafontant
2019 · textile
Untitled
Alejandro Lafontant
2019 · textile
Soft Drink
Adriana Martinez
2019 · mixed media
Somewhere Nowhere
Natalia Martinez
2019 · site-specific installation
Save As
Mariana Murcia
2017 · 5S iPhone cases
la evolisyon machin
Las Nietas de Nono
2019 · mixed media
Llevame Contigo (Let Me Find Out)
Kenny Rivero
2019 · oil on canvas
G Orwell (History on Wheels)
Chemi Rosado-Seijo
2019 · book mounted on wheels
Tlaloc
Claudia Pena Salinas
2018 · inkjet monoprint on wax panel
UNAM
Claudia Pena Salinas
2018 · inkjet monoprint on wax panel
In a Matter of Time
Manuel Mendoza Sánchez
2019 · concrete
Elk and Zebra embrace while reaching simultaneous climax
Curtis Talwst Santiago
2017 · mixed media diorama in reclaimed jewelry box
SPYDER
Basica TV
2017 · video
y ahora que hago con ella?
Jose Luis Vargas
2019 · oil on canvas
3ra Parte de lo Entrenamiento
Jose Luis Vargas
2019 · oil on canvas