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Cristin Tierney Gallery is pleased to participate in The Armory Show. The gallery will present new paintings by Jorge Tacla in the Focus section curated by Carla Acevedo-Yates, Marilyn and Larry Fields Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. The Armory Show opens with an invite-only preview day on Thursday, September 8th, and continues through Sunday, September 11th.
On view will be Tacla’s new and recent paintings devoted to the themes of revolution and evolution. Some of the subjects explored at the fair will reflect Tacla’s celebrated work involving buildings, including the U.S. Capitol, which Tacla has painted several times since the insurrection on January 6th, and various buildings and monuments that embody the history and aspirations of humanity. They are joined by works representing an uncommon turn for the artist: abstract depictions of human figures in protest groups including Black Lives Matter in the United States and the Estallido Social in Chile.
Moments of political conflict are a recurring subject in Chilean-American Jorge Tacla’s work. The artist’s interest stems, in part, from his personal history. He came of age in Chile during the rise of the Communist party and youth-led popular protests. As a teenager, he witnessed firsthand the U.S.-assisted overthrow of Salvador Allende’s government, followed by Pinochet’s dictatorship. Tacla moved to downtown Manhattan in 1981, where he joined anti-apartheid protests and experienced xenophobia as an immigrant. He was also in New York City in 2001, when the North and South towers of the World Trade Center fell due to terrorist attacks by Al-Qaeda.
Concurrently, Cristin Tierney Gallery is excited to host Stagings/Escenarios, a solo exhibition of new paintings by Tacla curated by Christian Viveros-Fauné. Stagings/Escenarios will open on the evening of Friday, September 9th, with a reception from 6:00 to 8:00 pm, and will be on view at 219 Bowery through October 28th.
Jorge Tacla’s (b. 1958 Santiago, Chile) paintings represent a space of social rupture. Many are situated in the joints of a new architecture that arises in the wake of catastrophe—natural or man made. Tacla perceives the devastation that results from such events as an opportunity to investigate structural systems that would otherwise remain unseen. Tacla illuminates the variability of identity for both victim and aggressor—an agent who is disassociated from their own identity— and the complexity of the assessment of guilt. These critical issues, and their situation in the larger, collective human experience, are the defining theoretical inquiries of Tacla’s work.
The artist studied at the Escuela de Bellas Artes, Universidad de Chile in Santiago and moved to New York in 1981. Since then, his paintings have been exhibited internationally in museums, biennials, and galleries. Notable exhibitions include: Jorge Tacla: Historia Natural de la Destrucción, Il Posto; El Cuarto Mundo, 14 Bienal de Artes Mediales de Chile, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Santiago; The Visible Turn: Contemporary Artists Confront Political Invisibility, USF Contemporary Art Museum; Jorge Tacla: Todo lo sólido se desvanece, CorpArtes; Upheaval, Tufts University Art Gallery; Hidden Identities: Paintings and Drawings by Jorge Tacla, Art Museum of the Americas; Jorge Tacla: Identidades Ocultas, Museo de la Memoria y los Derechos Humanos; The Emergency Pavilion, 55 Biennale de Venezia; Jorge Tacla: Drawings, Milwaukee Art Museum, Jorge Tacla: Epicentro, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Santiago; Jorge Tacla: Epicentro, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires; Jorge Tacla: Art at the Edge, High Museum of Art; The New Portrait, MoMA PS1. He has also completed several permanent installations including a mixed-media mural at the Museo de la Memoria y Los Derechos Humanos in Santiago, Chile and murals for the Bronx Housing Court, a division of the Civil Court of New York City.
Tacla’s work is held in numerous museum collections including Tufts University, Wake Forest University, High Museum of Art, Museo de Arte Moderno, Blanton Museum of Art, California Center for the Arts, Milwaukee Art Museum, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, and Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes. The Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art acquired the papers of Jorge Tacla, including his drawings, correspondence, photographs, notebooks, and clippings. His holdings span nearly forty years and provide a look into the fluctuating histories of the New York and Santiago art worlds.
Tacla lives and works in New York City and Santiago, Chile.
Founded in 2010, Cristin Tierney Gallery is a contemporary art gallery located on The Bowery with a deep commitment to the presentation, development, and support of a roster of both established and emerging artists. Its program emphasizes artists engaged with critical theory and art history, with an emphasis on conceptual, video, and performance art. Education and audience engagement is central to our mission.
Cristin Tierney Gallery is a member of the ADAA (Art Dealers Association of America).
Image Jorge Tacla, Identidad Oculta 160, 2021. oil and cold wax on canvas. 40 x 30 inches (101.6 x 76.2 cm). |
