Magdalena Atria, Sonriendo desesperadamente (Smiling desperately I), 2004, Toothpicks and craft modeling clay, Dimensions variable.

Magdalena Atria, Sonriendo desesperadamente (Smiling desperately I), 2004, Toothpicks and craft modeling clay, Dimensions variable.

Museum
of Contemporary Art
Los Angeles
250 South Grand Avenue
310-289-5223
Los Angeles
Poetics of the Handmade
April 22-August 13, 2007

Poetics of the Handmade features a group of artists based in Latin America whose works of art are made by the artists, own hands. While many of the artists, contemporaries tend toward a “post-studio” approach — with assistants producing their work — this group explores the close relationship that exists between a person and his or her craft. The artists, interest in transformation and process has led them to produce works that are painstakingly handcrafted from a wide range of materials. They have found poetry in the depiction of quotidian objects and in the powerful resonance of small actions. Included in the exhibition are Eduardo Abaroa (Mexico), Magdalena Atria (Chile), Mónica Bengoa (Chile), Fernando Bryce (Peru), Darío Escobar (Guatemala), Máximo González (Argentina), Marco Maggi (Uruguay), and Livia Marin (Chile). Presenting widely differing approaches, the eight artists will be represented by large-scale installations and select bodies of work. While Atria, Escobar, and Bryce show recent work, Abaroa, Bengoa, and González present new pieces created for this occasion. Poetics of the Handmade is organized for The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, by MOCA Associate Curator Alma Ruiz and accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue.

Poetics of the Handmade is made possible by support from the Jumex Fund for Contemporary Latin American Art, Catharine and Jeffrey Soros, Lois G. Rosen, The MOCA Contemporaries, Carol and David Appel, and Galería kbk.

Eduardo Abaroa (b. 1968 Mexico City) attended La Escuela Naçional de Artes Pisticas in Mexico City and received an MFA from the California Institute of the Arts in Santa Clarita, California. His work features mixed media sculptures often constructed from consumer waste products such as plastic bottles, plastic straws, underwear bands, and cotton swabs to create highly intellectual and often ridiculous metaphors. Selected exhibitions include Kurimanzutto in Mexico City, Jack Tilton Gallery in New York, and Track 16 in Los Angeles. He is represented by Kurimanzutto in Mexico City. Eduardo Abaroa lives and works in Mexico City.

Magdalena Atria was born in 1966 in Santiago, Chile. She received her BFA from Universidad Catolica de Chile, Santiago, and her MFA in 1997 from Parsons School of Design, New York.Recent solo shows have included: (2001) George Billis Gallery, New York; (2000) calquiera puede hacer esto, Galeria Bech, Santiago; and (1999) George Billis Gallery, New York.Artforum's Annie Buckley says of Atria's work in Poetics of the Handmade, "Magdalena Atria’s chunky psychedelic painting-sculpture hybrid crawls along the wall like an orderly explosion of Play-Doh …"