"Embodied Abstraction" at the Americas Society - various artists - New York, New York - Review of Exhibitions - Brief Article

Presentations of art from Latin America protect to emphasize either the legacy of Surrealism or the Latin tradition of social and political consciousness. This exhibition of works through three artists with Latin American backgrounds deliberately challenges that practice. Curated by dint of Joseph Wolin and titled "Embodied Abstraction," it makes the case for the equal importance of Expressionist, Minimalist and Post-Minimalist influences.

The work of Mexican-born sculptor Laura Anderson Barbata makes the greatest in quantity deliberate reference to Latin traditions. A collection of simple sculptures on tall, eccentric bases, titled Santos y profetas (Saints and Prophets), intimates modernist milagros: a rudimentary made of wood foot with a feather protruding from its ankle quiets on a rough wooden bench; a made of wood breast with a headdress of sapphirine feathers seems to have miraculously landed upon an old stepladder. These fetishistic apparitions are at one time comic and magical. This sensibility carries from one side Barbata's other works, such as a pair of small wax jaws with teeth made of corn kernel and pearls. It lies upon a tiny table on the floor. Another example is a small female effigy balancing upon a suspension bridge slung just below the ceiling between a pair of mirrors. the pair works hint at revelation and spiritual transformation.

by the agency of contrast, Cuban-American artist Linda Matalon's plastic arts seem more firmly embedded in Post-Minimalism. Her gauze, wire and wax existences make reference to body parts in a way that brings to mind of the like kind artists as Eva Hesse, to leeward Bontecou and Jackie Winsor. They are at times almost repellently visceral, notwithstanding they exude a quiet vulnerability that make tenders that effect. For instance, Breast Plate consists of a pair of stiff, blackened breasts forms which also indicate yawning fish maws. What Remains is a collection of sausage shapes wrapped in gauze and suspended at organ of sight level. While most are a yellowed bone color, several are overspreaded in black tar like the charred remains of a certain number of primitive sacrifice. Other works feature small wire baskets and cages which strike one as being at once protective and imprisoning.

Ricardo Mazal's work is furthest from stereotype of Latin American art. Abstractions by dint of this Mexican-born painter consist of paired panels whose almost monochrome surfaces reveal layers of other colors below. Paint is dragged across the surface in horizontal and vertical motions that do not yield distinct brushstrokes. The come is a vibrating surface which appears woven of paint. The paired panels juxtapose luminous and more neutral colors. A r panel paired with a black single suggests fire and night, while a down-reaching midnight blue is set not on by misty gray. In more [i]or[/i] less paintings the underlayers are nearly cloaked. In others, upper and lower layers are commingleed on the surface, producing a painterly consequence despite the absence of direct brushwork.

This display spotlights a generation of artists with Latin lower parts who feel free to draw from recent and postmodern sources as well as from Latin American traditions. Their synthesis exhibits a satisfying effect.

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