Jump Cuts: Venezuelan Contemporary Art from the Colección Mercantil
On View June 1-July 15, 2007
The Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation, known as CIFO, and the Colección Mercantil present a major exhibition of cutting edge art by leading contemporary Venezuelan artists, on view at CIFO Art Space from June 1 through July 15 2007. Jump Cuts: Venezuelan Contemporary Art from the Colección Mercantil examines the work of 30 artists born between 1946 and 1972 whose work characterizes the rapid evolution and surprising diversity of contemporary art created in Venezuela and Latin America.
Featuring paintings, drawings, photography, assemblage, sculpture, video and installation work dating from 1990 to 2006, the exhibition offers new insights into the social, political and cultural issues and the resulting creative output that have shaped the eclectic international art scene in Venezuela. CIFOs presentation of Jump Cuts marks only the second time that this exceptional art collection assembled by Venezuelas Banco Mercantil will be seen in the United States. Previously on view at the Americas Society in New York in 2005, the exhibition is a rare opportunity for American audiences to view these works.
The Colección Mercantil represents an important institutional effort to map the outstanding contemporary art production in Venezuela of the last three decades, said CIFO founder and chair Ella Fontanals-Cisneros. CIFOs goal is to broaden global understanding of the work of artists who are making a significant impact in Latin America but are less familiar to U.S. audiences. This show gives Miami residents and visitors a chance to see a compelling body of work that will excite, provoke and no doubt expand their ideas about art from Latin America.
Jump Cuts includes work by 30 artists: Alexánder Apóstol, Juan Araujo, Carla Arocha, Emilia Azcárate, Aziz Cucher, Alessandro Balteo Yazbeck, Mariana Bunimov, Sigfredo Chacón, Eugenio Espinoza, José Gabriel Fernández, Magdalena Fernández, Héctor Fuenmayor, Alexander Gerdel, Jaime Gili, Alí González, José Antonio Hernández-Diez, Arturo Herrera, Juan Iribarren, Diana López, Luis Simón Molina-Pantin, Roberto Obregón, David Palacios, Alfredo Ramírez, Juan Carlos Rodríguez, Luis Romero, Javier Téllez, Meyer Vaisman, Sandra Vivas, Alfred Wenemoser and Julia Zurilla. The presentation at CIFO was organized by curators Jesús Fuenmayor, Tahía Rivero and Lorena González of the Colección Mercantil, and Cecilia Fajardo-Hill, chief curator of CIFO.
The exhibition takes its title from a cinematic editing technique practiced by Jean-Luc Goddard in which abrupt cuts from one shot to the next produce a sense of dislocation in the viewer. Just as jump cuts separate contexts and relationships in film, this exhibition explores art produced during a timeframe and cultural context that breaks from engrained historical narratives, and invites new ways of seeing and appreciating art from Venezuela and Latin America. The artists in this exhibition brought a critical perspective to the local conditions in which they were working, said Jesús Fuenmayor, principal curator of the exhibition. Their art is therefore inextricably linked to and must be understood within the historic context that influenced their creation.
Jump Cuts brings together work spanning a broad range of themes and artistic approaches from the provocative political art of José Hernández-Diez and Sandra Vivas; to artists like Magdalena Fernández and Juan Irribarren who challenge notions of representation; to artists who approach art as experimentation, such as Davida Palacios, Sigfredo Chacón and Roberto Obregón. The exhibition is organized around four primary themes: the idealization of modernity; the synchronization of Venezuelas development with modern development internationally; the relationship between social development and artistic development; and the ideals of social transformation.
Mercantils diverse and daring collection demonstrates their commitment to fostering new artistic talent and a new image of Latin American art goals which CIFO also seeks to accomplish through its exhibitions and programs, said Cecilia Fajardo-Hill. While extraordinarily diverse in their expression, the works in Jump Cuts explore universal themes that have powerful resonance not only in the context of events in Venezuela, but also in the context of an increasingly globalized world.
About the Colección Mercantil
The Colección Mercantil is the corporate art division of Mercantil, Venezuelas leading financial services provider and a dedicated corporate supporter of the arts. The collection comprises over 1,500 Venezuelan artworks from the early 18th century to the present day and represents the range of Venezuelan artists throughout modern history. In addition to the growth and stewardship of its collection, the curatorial department of the Colección Mercantil promotes the study of Venezuelan art and the documentation of Venezuelan cultural history through research, restoration, and publishing. Reconsidering the past and investing in the future, Colección Mercantil supports the dissemination and preservation of Venezuelas cultural heritage for future generations.
Mercantil is an international financial services company with operations throughout the Americas and in Europe. Its main subsidiaries are: Banco Mercantil C.A., Seguros Mercantil and Merinvest C.A. in Venezuela; Commercebank N.A. in the United States, and Banco Mercantil (Schweiz) AG in Switzerland.
About CIFO
The Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation (CIFO) is a nonprofit organization established in 2002 by Ella Fontanals-Cisneros and her family to support art and artists who are exploring new directions in contemporary art. CIFO fosters cultural understanding and educational exchange through three primary initiatives: Grants and Commissions Programs for emerging and mid-career visual artists from Latin America; an exhibitions program showcasing work by Latin American artists and art from the Ella Fontanals-Cisneros Collection in the state-of-the-art CIFO Art Space; and foundation-initiated support for other arts and culture projects.
Upcoming Exhibitions at CIFO
From September 6 to October 21, 2007, CIFO will present its 2007 Grants Program exhibition, a dynamic group show of works by ten emerging artists from Latin America who were awarded grants from CIFO in 2007. Participating artists are: Alberto Baraya (Colombia); Fredi Casco (Paraguay); Donna Conlon (Panama); Adriana García Galán (Colombia); Renata Lucas (Brazil); Luis Molina-Pantin (Venezuela); Ángel Poyón Calí (Guatemala); Cecilia Szalkowicz & Gastón Pérsico (Argentina); Emilio Valdés (Mexico); and Héctor Zamora (Mexico).
From December 5, 2007 to February 17, 2008, CIFO will present Fortunate Object: Selections from the Ella Fontanals-Cisneros Collection showcasing art that takes inspiration from seemingly ordinary, everyday objects. On view during the international art fair Art Basel Miami Beach, the exhibition will feature works by leading artists such as Ai Wei, Damian Hirst and Jose Antonio Hernández-Diez. Ella Fontanals-Cisneros began collecting contemporary art in the 1970s, and today her collection includes important and cutting-edge pieces by some of the leading artists of our time. Collection highlights include photography by Barbara Kruger, earth works and photography by Ana Mendieta, abstract painting by Juan Mele, and video installations by Bill Viola.
CIFO is located at 1018 North Miami Avenue. The galleries are open to the public Thursday through Sunday from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. or by appointment. Public information is available online at www.cifo.org or by calling 305.455.3380.
# # # Media in Miami /
Información en Espanol contact:
Maria Elena Useche, Communications Manager
305.455.3349; museche@efcholdings.com
National and international media contact:
Resnicow Schroeder Associates
Lily Mitchem, 212.671.5163; lily@resnicowschroeder.com
