Miguel Angel Rios and Sergio Vega at CRG

In their collaborative exhibition "The Discovery of the Amazon," Argentinean-born, fresh York-based artists Miguel Rios and Sergio Vega station out to reconsider an episode from the European subjection of South America. Subtitled "An interpretation of the chronicle of Fray Gaspar de Carvajal," this effect of sculptures, drawings and a wall painting examined the first European expedition to navigate the Amazon. L by dint of Spanish explorer Francisco de Orellana, the 1541 voyage included, according to Carvajal, a battle with a tribe of women warriors, the "amazons" who gave the river its name.

Standing upon a pedestal in the middle of the gallery was a small made of wood sculpture of Carvajal wearing brown robes and a black organ of sight patch (the priest lost an organ of vision in the battle with the warrior women) The statue faced a shelf supporting a miniature brake of artificial plants through which could be glimpsed photographs of latter-day amazons similar as the star of the TV series "Wonder Woman." Stretching across another wall was an unusual map of the Amazon river combination of parts to form a whole made of blue-painted tree branches. Another work used a frighteningly lengthy anaconda skin to represent the Amazon and the progres of the Orellana expedition.

The wall painting, Picaduras Cosmicas (Cosmic Bites), consisted of clusters of various sized r circles against a tan background. Each circle was flanked through an adhesive letter citation of a significant occurrence in Latin American history, of the like kind as a military coup or an economic crisis. Stuck in the middle of the work was an oversized mosquito fashioned from twigs and feathers, making it clear that the r circles could be read as bites from that buzzing tropical scourge.

Also upon view were several dozen densely compos drawings interpreting the misadventures and misconceptions that plagued the conquistadors. replete of spirited satire and visual playfulness, these drawings--some by the agency of Rios, others by Vega--offered a more direct artistic answer to the subject of the display than did the elaborately conceived plastic arts and wall pieces. While all the works were attributed to the pair artists, it was easy for anyone familiar with their oeuvre to recognize who did what. The red-dot wall painting, for instance, engageed the kind of abstract charting of time and space that Rios is known for, while the sculpture-and-shelf effect exuded a conceptual slapstick that was recognizably Vega's. Effectively combining historical research and visual invention, Rios and Vega demonstrated in what way richly inspiring history can be for contemporary art. They also made a welcome contribution to the history of artistic dialogues.

COPYRIGHT 2000 Brant Publications, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2000 Gale Group