Alfredo Jaar
07 Apr - 23 May 2015
ALFREDO JAAR
Gold in the Morning
7 April — 23 May 2015
Galeria Luisa Strina is pleased to present Gold in the Morning, Alfredo Jaar’s first solo exhibition to be held at the gallery.
Alfredo Jaar is an artist, architect and filmmaker. He was born in 1956 in Chile, where he was also educated. In 1982 he moved to New York, where he lives and works today.
In 1985 Jaar traveled to Brazil to document the Serra Pelada gold mine, a year before Sebastião Salgado began to photograph in the region.
Jaar developed a large body of work over the following years based on this experience. He first released a series of the photographs as part of his installation Gold in the Morning, exhibited in 1986 at the Venice Biennale where he became the first Latin American artist ever invited to participate in the Biennale. Another upshot of this photographic series was the public intervention Rushes, conceived that same year for the Spring Street subway station in New York, whereby images of Serra Pelada miners were juxtaposed against current gold prices around the world.
This exhibition will be the first ever to focus exclusively on the Serra Pelada series. It will consist of a video and a selection of both color and black and white photographs, including his iconic images of the landscape and workers as well as previously unreleased images from the series.
The precarious situation of the Serra Pelada miners registered in these images exposes the perverse relationships between economic growth and working conditions that are so often sacrificed for the sake of profit. Beyond their documental nature, these images also exercise a metaphorical function by symbolizing the contradictions of the contemporary world – based on relations of social inequality, economic dominance and exploitation of the earth.
The artist’s several collective exhibitions have included: Venice Biennale (1986, 2007, 2009, 2013), Documenta, Kassel (1987, 2002) and São Paulo Biennial (1987, 1989, 2010).
Alfredo Jaar has had solo exhibitions at institutions such as the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York (1992); Whitechapel Gallery, London (1992); Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (1992); Moderna Museet, Stockholm (1994); Museum of Contemporary Art, Rome (2005); Berlinische Galerie, Alte Nationalgalerie and Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende Kunst, Berlin (2012); and Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Helsinki (2014).
The artist’s work can be found in collections worldwide, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Tate, London; Guggenheim Museum, New York; LACMA, Los Angeles; MOCA, Los Angeles; Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Moderna Museet, Stockholm, and MASP, São Paulo.
Simultaneously with the opening of Gold in the Morning, the gallery will host a launch for the artist book Outros pensam / Otros piensan. The publication is the Portuguese / Spanish version of Other People Think, a project by Alfredo Jaar in homage to John Cage, created on the occasion of Cage ́s Centennial in 2012. The text, which explores relationships between North and South America, was written by Cage when he was 15 years old. This new bilingual edition is produced and launched in Brazil by Ikrek Editions, translated by Lucrecia Zappi.
Gold in the Morning
7 April — 23 May 2015
Galeria Luisa Strina is pleased to present Gold in the Morning, Alfredo Jaar’s first solo exhibition to be held at the gallery.
Alfredo Jaar is an artist, architect and filmmaker. He was born in 1956 in Chile, where he was also educated. In 1982 he moved to New York, where he lives and works today.
In 1985 Jaar traveled to Brazil to document the Serra Pelada gold mine, a year before Sebastião Salgado began to photograph in the region.
Jaar developed a large body of work over the following years based on this experience. He first released a series of the photographs as part of his installation Gold in the Morning, exhibited in 1986 at the Venice Biennale where he became the first Latin American artist ever invited to participate in the Biennale. Another upshot of this photographic series was the public intervention Rushes, conceived that same year for the Spring Street subway station in New York, whereby images of Serra Pelada miners were juxtaposed against current gold prices around the world.
This exhibition will be the first ever to focus exclusively on the Serra Pelada series. It will consist of a video and a selection of both color and black and white photographs, including his iconic images of the landscape and workers as well as previously unreleased images from the series.
The precarious situation of the Serra Pelada miners registered in these images exposes the perverse relationships between economic growth and working conditions that are so often sacrificed for the sake of profit. Beyond their documental nature, these images also exercise a metaphorical function by symbolizing the contradictions of the contemporary world – based on relations of social inequality, economic dominance and exploitation of the earth.
The artist’s several collective exhibitions have included: Venice Biennale (1986, 2007, 2009, 2013), Documenta, Kassel (1987, 2002) and São Paulo Biennial (1987, 1989, 2010).
Alfredo Jaar has had solo exhibitions at institutions such as the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York (1992); Whitechapel Gallery, London (1992); Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (1992); Moderna Museet, Stockholm (1994); Museum of Contemporary Art, Rome (2005); Berlinische Galerie, Alte Nationalgalerie and Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende Kunst, Berlin (2012); and Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Helsinki (2014).
The artist’s work can be found in collections worldwide, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Tate, London; Guggenheim Museum, New York; LACMA, Los Angeles; MOCA, Los Angeles; Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Moderna Museet, Stockholm, and MASP, São Paulo.
Simultaneously with the opening of Gold in the Morning, the gallery will host a launch for the artist book Outros pensam / Otros piensan. The publication is the Portuguese / Spanish version of Other People Think, a project by Alfredo Jaar in homage to John Cage, created on the occasion of Cage ́s Centennial in 2012. The text, which explores relationships between North and South America, was written by Cage when he was 15 years old. This new bilingual edition is produced and launched in Brazil by Ikrek Editions, translated by Lucrecia Zappi.