Visceral Beauty
Exhibit statement
Featured Artists
Alberto Beltrán, Gerda Grüber, Héctor Velázquez, Leopoldo Méndez,
Gustavo Monroy, Vanessa Rivero, José Julio Rodríguez and John R. Thompson.
During the last few years I have been inspired by museums like the Cooper Hewitt or the Museum of Modern Art, where portions of an exhibition presented works of art and design in tightly spaced thematic arrangements.
These groupings often juxtaposed “high” and “low” art or unexpected combinations of artists, genres or time periods.
For instance a Fabergé egg may be paired with a piece of Tupperware or the work of outsider artist Henry Darger can be viewed in proximity to the homoerotic drawings of Tom of Finland.
Instead of being viewed in isolation these works took on new meanings, and formed subtle discourses that went beyond their more obvious relationships. The organization of “Visceral Beauty” gave me an opportunity to experiment with the idea juxtaposition, and resulting discourse by combining some of my own paintings with an eclectic collection of works that I own, like, and have begun to encounter in México. All of the works are beautiful and individually powerful.
I included them because of their shared ability to provoke an immediate emotional response through the use of materials, techniques, form, function and/or subject matter.
Many of the works are from México, but I have also included work from China, Afghanistan, The Netherlands and the United States.
The exhibit is composed of paintings, sculptures, prints, drawings and objects not necessarily thought of as “art”.
I have grouped various works in order to form a series of general sub-themes under the overall category of “Visceral Beauty”.
The physical proximity within these groupings forces a dialog between the works and a new way of thinking about each of the individual pieces.
John R. Thompson
2011 - 2012
© JOHN R. THOMPSON. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. ALL THE ARTWORKS AND CURATOR'S STATEMENTS ARE PROPERTY OF THEIR AUTHORS.