The Peripatetic School: Itinerant Drawing from Latin America looks at the work of nine artists who have adopted forms of travel or nomadism to explore contemporary life in America. Selected by curator Tanya Barson, the artists include Brígida Baltar, Tony Cruz, Raimond Chaves and Gilda Mantilla, André Komatsu, Mateo López, Jorge Macchi, Nicolás Paris and Ishmael Randall Weeks, whose shared interests lead them to engage with urban and rural landscapes through the medium of drawing. In their own way, each artist borrows from the models and conventions of geographical, botanical, topographical, political, philosophical or Surrealist investigation, allowing their work to destabilise assumptions about the continent. Texts by Tanya Barson, Isobel Whitelegg, Pablo León de la Barra and Moacir dos Anjos, together look at the history of itinerancy in art, the legacy of Latin American artists and theorists and the notion of a Peripatetic School.
Essays by Moacir dos Anjos, Tanya Barson, Pablo Léon de la Barra & Isobel Whitelegg | Edited by Tanya Barson and Kate Macfarlane.
Brígida Baltar (b. 1959, Rio de Janeiro) lives and works in Rio de Janeiro. She studied at Escola de Artes Visuais do Parque Lage, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Baltar began to develop her work in the 1990s, through small poetic gestures that took place around her home and studio. Biennials include the 25th São Paulo Biennial (2002); The 17th Cerveira Biennial, in Cerveira, Portugal (2013); The Nature of things — Biennial of the Americas, Denver, USA (2010); Panorama de arte brasileira (Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil (2007) and the 5th Havana Biennial, Cuba (1994). Selected international exhibitions include: Cruzamentos: Contemporary art in Brazil, Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, EUA (2014); SAM Art Project, Paris, France (2012); The peripatetic school: itinerant drawing from Latin America, Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, England, (2011); Museo de Arte del Banco de la República, Bogotá, Colombia, (2012); and Constructing views: experimental film and video from Brazil, New Museum, New York, USA (2010). Her works are in many collections, including: Colección Isabel y Agustín Coppel, Mexico D.F., Mexico; Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland, USA; Fundação Joaquim Nabuco, Recife, Brazil; Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, Middlesbrough, England; Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil; Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil; among others. Baltar is represented by Galeria Nara Roesler.
José Tony Cruz (b. 1977, Vega Alta, Puerto Rico) lives and works in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Cruz studied Sculpture at the Escuela de Artes Plásticas de Puerto Rico. He has exhibited widely in Latin America as well as in UK and USA. Recent solo exhibitions include Andamios, Galeria Casas Riegner, Bogota, Colombia (2011), Project Room, Galería Luisa Strina, Sao Paulo, Brasil (2008), Diálogos Espacio 1414, Colección Berezdivin, San Juan, Puerto Rico (2005). His work has been part of group exhibitions including III Tirenal Poli/Gráfica de San Juan: América Latina y el Caribe, San Juan, Puerto Rico (2012), The Peripatetic School: Itinerant Drawing from Latin America, Drawing Room (2011), To draw is to write, to write is to draw, Casas Riegner Gallery, Bogota Colombia (2010), Site-Specific Installations, Magnan Metz Gallery, New York (2009).
Nicolás Paris (b. 1977, Bogota D.C., Colombia) lives and work in Bogota, Colombia. This drawing is based on the graphic score of British experimental composer of the 1960s Cornelius Cardew, who was the subject of a Drawing Room exhibition in 2009. Paris adds: “We have often told that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. I would like to say that the most effective distance between two human beings is an imaginary line”. Selected solo exhibitions include: Interaction Method Random Order, LABOR, México (2010); Classroom, Museum of Modern Art of Medellín, Medellín, Colombia (2009); Resistance Exercises, Zona Maco Sur, México (2009); As Simple as a Line or a Circle (with Ignacio Uriarte), LABORATORY 987, Museum of Contemporary Art of Castilla y León, León (2008); and Twofold, Public Library ¨El Tintal¨ Manuel Zapata Olivella, Bogotá (2008). Selected group exhibitions include: Illuminations, 54th Venice Biennale. Venice (2011); Parapatetic School, Drawing room, London (2011); Fat Chance to Dream, MaisterraValbuena Gallery, Madrid (2011); The Draughstman's Contract, Carlos Garaicoa Open Stuido 5.0, Madrid (2011); Tentative D'Expansion d'un lie Parisien, Mor Charpentier Gallery, Paris (2010); Vanishing Points, POssible Architectures, Ibero-american Biennial of Architecture, Medellín, Colombia (2010); Model Kits, Museum of Contemporary Art of Castilla y León, León (2010); Meeting Areas, Ignacio Liprandi Gallery, Buenos Aires (2010); Grito e Escuta: 7th Biennial of Mercosur, Porto Alegre, Brazil (2009); Asymmetries and Convergences, Vermelho Gallery; Sao Paulo (2009); Sentimental Piracy, La Residencia, Bogotá (2009); The Fold, El Nogal Gallery, Bogotá (2009); Urgent Cali: 41 Salon Nacional de Artistas, Cali, Colombia (2008); One Plus One, Crowd, Doméstico, Madrid (2008); Edges and Ends, Casa del Encuentro, Museum of Antioquia, Medellín, Colombia (2008); and IMAGIN+A, Museum of Modern Art of Medellín MAMM. Medellín, Colombia (2008). Paris has work in many public collections, including: JUMEX Collection. Mexico City; MUSAC. León; MAMM. Medellín; and BBVA Collection. Bogotá.
Ishmael Randall Weeks (b. 1976, Cusco, Peru) lives and works in New York and Lima. Weeks studied at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, USA, and Bard College, NY. Selected solo exhibitions include: Cuts, Burns, Punctures, Drawing Center, New York , NY, US (2013); Maquette For Landscape, Federica Schiavo Gallery, Rome (2013); Un muro de Tochos, Arróniz Arte Contemporaneo, Mexico City (2013); Aún sin Título II, La Ex-Culpable, Lima (2013); Aún sin Título I, Revolver Gallery, Lima (2013); Ishamael Randall Weeks, Eleven Rivington Gallery, New York (2009); Trofeo, Zona Maco Sur (2009). Selected group exhibitions include: 2012: Bajo El Solde La Muerte, Galeria Espacio Minimo, Madrid (2012); Peripatetic School: Itinerant Drawing from Latin America, Drawing Room, London & Bogota, Colombia (2011); Contain, Maintain, Sustain, Washington Project for the Arts, Artisphere, Washington DC (2011); Fronteras en Mutacion, Centro Cultural de España, Buenos Aires (2011); Bruma, 20 Hoxton Square Gallery, London (2011); S-Files Bienal, Museo dal Barrio, New York (2011); Tracing the Unseen Border, La MaMa la Galeria, New York (2011); Objects of Devotion and Desire: Medieval relic to Contemporary art, Bertha and Karl Leubsdorf Art Gallery, Hunter College, New York (2011); Glossolalia 5.0, The Kitchen, New York (2011); Planet of Slums, Third Screening, New York (2010); and Greater New York, MOMA PS1, New York (2010).
Mateo López (b. 1978, Bogotá, Colombia) lives and works in Bogotá. He studied at Universidad de Los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia and Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá, Colombia. Selected solo exhibitions include: Avenida Primavera, casa número dos, Casas Riegner Gallery, Bogotá (2012); Irregular Hexagon, Colombian Art in Residence (curated by José Roca), Jerusalem Center for the Visual Arts, Jerusalem (2012); 72-13, Singapore City, Singapore (2012); Maio, Galeria Luisa Strina, Sao Paulo (2011); Made to Measure, Gasworks, London (2010); and Deriva, MUSAC Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León, Spain (2009). Selected group exhibitons include: Imaginary Homelands, The Art Gallery of York University (AGYU), Toronto (2012); Rotary Connection, Casey Kaplan Gallery, New York (2012); The Peripathetic School, Itinerant Drawing from Latin America (curated by Tanya Barson), Banco de la República, Bogotá, Colombia, traveling to Drawing Room, London (2011); En Obras: Arte y Arquitectura en la Coleçao Teixeira de Freitas, curated by Adriano Pedrosa, Tenerife Espacio de las Artes, Tenerife, Canary Islands (2011); 8th Mercosur Bienal, curated by José Roca, Porto Alegre, Brazil (2011); Esa cosa verde de ahí afuera, Travesía 4 Gallery, Madrid (2011); The Armory Show, Casas Riegner Gallery, New York (2011); To draw is to write, to write is to draw, Casas Riegner Gallery, Bogotá, Colombia (2010); Let’s Talk about houses: When Art speaks Architecture: Building, unbuilding, inhabit., Museu Nacional de Arte Contemporânea, Museu do Chiado, Lisbon (2010); 29th Sao Paulo Biennial, Ha sempre um copo de mar para um homem navegar, Curated by Moacir dos Anjos and Agnaldo Farias, Sao Paulo (2010) and Panamericana, curated by Jens Hoffman. Kurimanzutto, Mexico City (2010).
