Friday, February 5, 2010

Gabriel Orozco at MoMA




ModaTierra strives to bring traditional Mexican culture to a contemporary audience, but we are not the only ones taking Mexican traditions to the next level. Gabriel Orozco's retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art highlights the twenty year career of the avant-garde artist who hails from Jalapa, Veracruz.
The artist's strength lies is arranging found objects into a quasi-surreal setting: Four Bicycles (1994) is reminiscent of M.C. Escher's tesselations, yet the material implies a kinetic realism that the viewer can relate to.

Imposing geometrical shapes on photographs is another modern trick implored by Orozco. In Atomist (1996), the viewer is forced to break down her expectations of a traditional image, and think of basic shapes that contribute to movement.

Orozco's presence in the contemporary art scene is very important in putting Mexico on an artsy New Yorker's radar. The way he engages found objects with elements of Mexican pop culture is another example of ModaTierra's goals to bring Mexican culture to the forefront of contemporary fashion.