Carlos Garaicoa | Scratched Surfaces, as Diamond against Crystal
Carlos Garaicoa | Scratched Surfaces, as Diamond against Crystal Goodman Gallery, London 25 June – 31 July 2021
Scratched Surfaces, as Diamond against Crystal, is Carlos Garaicoa’s debut exhibition at Goodman Gallery, London. Garaicoa is one of Cuba’s most significant contemporary artists. Through a multidisciplinary approach, Garaicoa addresses issues of culture and politics with a reflexive lens into architecture, urbanism and history. His work has been included in the Biennials of Havana (1991- 2019), São Paulo Biennale (1998, 2004, 2010), the first Johannesburg Biennale (1995) as well as the Venice Biennale (2005, 2009, 2018), among others. In his essay, Between Apparatus and Subjectivity: Carlos Garaicoa’s Post-Utopian Architecture, Okwui Enwezor described his practice, “Garaicoa is perhaps one of the most significant artists of his generation to develop a sustained aesthetic and analytical framework that would fuse the heritage of modern Cuban art and its complex political structure.”
Scratched Surfaces, as Diamond against Crystal, is a presentation of salient bodies of work that engage affective and temporal dimensions of landscape. The exhibition includes the project Memorias Intimas Marcas/ Intimate Memories: Marks which was initiated in 1996. As well a new major project co-commissioned with DIDAC Art Foundation in Santiago (Spain), Línea rota de horizonte/ Broken Line of Horizon (2021) exhibited for the first time in the UK.
Artworks
About
Carlos Garaicoa
Carlos Garaicoa (B. 1967 Havana, Cuba) studied thermodynamics and later painting at the Instituto Superior de Arte, Havana (1989 – 1994).
Garaicoa developed a multidisciplinary approach to address issues of culture and politics, particularly Cuban, through the study of architecture, urbanism and history. He focuses on a dialogue between art and urban space through which investigates the social structure of our cities in terms of their architecture. Through a wide variety of materials and media, Garaicoa found ways to criticise modernist Utopian architecture and the collapse of the 20th century ideologies.
Garaicoa’shas held numerous solo exhibitions including Lunds Konsthall and Skissernass Museum, Lund (2019); Parasol Unit Foundation, London (2018); Fondazione Merz, Torino (2017); MAAT, Lisbon (2017); Azkuna Zentroa, Bilbao (2017); Museum Villa Stuck, Munich (2016); Nasjonalmuseet, Oslo (2015); CA2M Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo, Móstoles, Madrid (2014); Fundación Botín, Santander (2014); NC-Arte and FLORA ars + natura, Bogotá (2014); Kunsthaus Baselland Muttenz, Basel(2012); Kunstverein Braunschweig, Brunswick, Germany (2012); Contemporary Art Museum, Institute for Research in Art, Tampa (2007); H.F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York (2011); Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam (SMBA), Amsterdam (2010); Centre d’Art la Panera, Lérida (2011); Centro de Arte Contemporáneo de Caja de Burgos (CAB), Burgos (2011); National Museum of Contemporary Art (EMST), Athens (2011); Inhotim Instituto de Arte Contemporáneo, Brumadinho (2012); Caixa Cultural, Río de Janeiro (2008); Museo ICO (2012) and Matadero (2010), Madrid; IMMA, Dublin (2010); Palau de la Virreina, Barcelona (2006); Museum of Contemporary Art (M.O.C.A), Los Angeles (2005); Biblioteca Luis Ángel Arango, Bogotá (2000).
Garaicoa has participated in prestigious international events such as the Biennials of Havana (1991, 1994, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2009, 2012, 2015), Shanghai (2010), São Paulo (1998, 2004), Venice (2009, 2005), Johannesburg (1995), Liverpool (2006) and Moscow (2005), the Triennials of Auckland (2007), San Juan (2004), Yokohama (2001) and Echigo-Tsumari (2012); Documenta 11 (2003) and 14 (2017) and PhotoEspaña 12 (2012).
In 2005 Garaicoa received the XXXIX International Contemporary Art Prize Foundation “Pierre de Monaco” in Montecarlo, and the Katherine S. Marmor Award in Los Angeles.
Garaicoa currently lives and works between Havana and Madrid.
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