Overview
The Gallery's fall season will open with a major exhibition of new works by Juan Muñoz on September 21, 1999. The exhibition will be on view until October 30, 1999. Hours are Monday through Saturday, from 10 am to 6 pm.
Since the 1980s, Juan Muñoz has received international attention for his sculptural works and installations which often include figures that are encountered through architecture or fabricated urban landscapes. His recent works, Blotter Figures, Crossroads (Cabinets from January to December), and Staircases continue his engagement with the figure and architecture, inviting viewers to witness their literal and illusory presence. Says Muñoz, "I build these works to explain to myself things that I cannot understand otherwise. The work should somehow remain enigmatic to me."
Juan Muñoz
Blotter Figures, Crossroads, and Staircases
The Gallery's fall season will open with a major exhibition of new works by Juan Muñoz on September 21, 1999. The exhibition will be on view until October 30, 1999. Hours are Monday through Saturday, from 10 am to 6 pm.
Since the 1980s, Juan Muñoz has received international attention for his sculptural works and installations which often include figures that are encountered through architecture or fabricated urban landscapes. His recent works, Blotter Figures, Crossroads (Cabinets from January to December), and Staircases continue his engagement with the figure and architecture, inviting viewers to witness their literal and illusory presence. Says Muñoz, "I build these works to explain to myself things that I cannot understand otherwise. The work should somehow remain enigmatic to me."
Blotter Figures (1999) in the North Gallery includes a group of gray figures which stand alone or in pairs, some holding poles or rotating spheres. These figures, which are fabricated from polyester resin and linen, are largely abstract and featureless, yet still suggest traces of individuality and facial expression. Suggesting both the absence and possibility of an encounter with viewers, Blotter Figures continues Muñoz's interest in a "Place of transit. Space inscribed in its own exile...Place that is negation of movement and at the same time generator of pathways."
Crossroads (Cabinets from January to December) (1998-99) is exhibited in the North Gallery Viewing Room where Muñoz has installed a group of six large stainless steel cabinets with glass doors. Rows of black shelves hold small lead figures of men and women, miniature doors, cast polyester resin and carved wooden knives, and other cast objects. While the outside of these stainless steel cabinets reflects all that surrounds them, their interior suggests an undisclosed narrative, with its figures turned away from viewers.
Muñoz's installation titled Staircases, transforms the South Gallery with an enormous photographic billboard depicting a facade of a building and fire escape-surely New York-straddled by two corten steel staircases. As viewers look inside the staircases, the scale and perspective shift as a miniature cityscape unfolds.
Muñoz's installation titled Staircases, transforms the South Gallery with an enormous photographic billboard depicting a facade of a building and fire escape-surely New York-straddled by two corten steel staircases. As viewers look inside the staircases, the scale and perspective shift as a miniature cityscape unfolds.
Juan Munoz was born in 1953 in Madrid, Spain, where he continues to live and work. Muñoz's work has been exhibited widely in Europe and the United States, including his 1996 installation titled A Place Called Abroad at Dia Center for the Arts, which radically transformed Dia's 7,500 square foot gallery space. His work has also recently been exhibited at the 6th Istanbul Biennial, The 47th Venice Biennale, Documenta IX, Carnegie International, and the Hirshhorn Museum.
