William Cordova
24 Oct - 05 Dec 2009
WILLIAM CORDOVA
“Laberintos”
October 24 – December 5, 2009
Opening Reception: Saturday, October 24th, 6-8 PM
Sikkema Jenkins & Co. is pleased to present an exhibition of new works by William Cordova. Entitled laberintos, this exhibition is Cordova’s first solo exhibition with Sikkema Jenkins & Co. and will be on view from October 24 through December 5, 2009.
William Cordova’s work embodies a duality that is central to his oeuvre: the interplay of rural and urban aesthetics. He also emphasizes the unintended links between practices and people. Inspired by Jorge Luis Borges’ novel Laberintos (1962) and Octavio Paz’s collection of essays The Labyrinth of Solitude (1950), Cordova’s works are multi-layered, elusive, and allusive. They are populated by landscapes, text, and collections of found everyday remnants. Cordova combines imagery from popular culture with gold leaf, and his pictorial space is further enhanced by the juxtaposition of drawing and structural linguistics. These elements create a setting that has the potential for new and inspiring occurrences. The works are sometimes interrupted by strips of electrical tape, blocked-out areas, drawings that extend off the picture plane, or free verse from anonymous authors. The artist’s palette is reminiscent of the static found on a television screen; this imbues Cordova’s works with an unpredictability that is both unsettling and compelling.
This exhibition will consist of five projects that include drawing, sculpture, and video. These indicate a shift towards a nuanced re-investigation of the iconography in the artist’s new works. For example, in untitled (Huaca) (2009), various objects (reclaimed wood, a primary school textbook, a feather, and two Polaroid photos) are assembled axially in a Constructivist manner that also reflects the syncopation of an Andean musical composition. The 100 drawing suite Untitled (The Echo In Nicolas Guillen Landrians Bolex) (2008-2009) acknowledges that the artist’s traditional linguistic elements—image, text, and materials—are only credible in the present when they are anchored within a preexisting social system of communication. In describing his work, Cordova states: “The stories that one tells somebody else around the family dining room table, those are the stories you pass on and you learn that way, so that it remains sacred. That is one of the things I want to convey in my work...the concept of sacredness.”
A brochure featuring an essay by Andrés Estefane, a noted writer and historian based in New York and Santiago, will accompany the exhibition. Estefane will focus on “how Cordova’s drawings, collages, sculptures, and installations offer a preliminary answer [to] the questions raised by the Borgesian labyrinth.”
William Cordova was born in Lima, Peru, in 1971. He received his MFA from Yale University in 2004 and his BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1996. The artist has been featured in solo exhibitions at Fleming Museum, Burlington; Artpace, San Antonio; Threewalls, Chicago; PS.1 Contemporary Art Center, Long Island City; and Arndt & Partner, Zurich. His work has been included in many international exhibitions and biennials, including San Juan Triennial, San Juan (2009); Whitney Biennial, New York (2008); Utopia Station, 50th Venice Biennale, Venice (2003); and several groundbreaking group shows, such as NeoHooDoo at the Menil Collection in Houston, TX (2008), and Street Level at the Nasher Museum at Duke University in Durham, NC (2007). In 2010, Cordova will debut works in exhibitions at La Conservera Centro De Arte Contemporáneo, Ceutí, Murcia, Spain and The Contemporary Museum of Art, San Diego. Concurrent with William Cordova’s exhibition, the gallery will also be showing approximately 50 postcard-sized drawings by Ivory Cost artist Frédéric Bruly Bouabré. Bouabré’s poetic work, drawn in ballpoint pen and colored pencil, record the artist’s observations of the world around him. Consisting of cartoon-like images of people and objects bordered by text and decoration, the drawings acquire their strength by accumulation. The simple drawings, grouped together, create an encyclopedic documentation of the world as experienced by the artist.
“Laberintos”
October 24 – December 5, 2009
Opening Reception: Saturday, October 24th, 6-8 PM
Sikkema Jenkins & Co. is pleased to present an exhibition of new works by William Cordova. Entitled laberintos, this exhibition is Cordova’s first solo exhibition with Sikkema Jenkins & Co. and will be on view from October 24 through December 5, 2009.
William Cordova’s work embodies a duality that is central to his oeuvre: the interplay of rural and urban aesthetics. He also emphasizes the unintended links between practices and people. Inspired by Jorge Luis Borges’ novel Laberintos (1962) and Octavio Paz’s collection of essays The Labyrinth of Solitude (1950), Cordova’s works are multi-layered, elusive, and allusive. They are populated by landscapes, text, and collections of found everyday remnants. Cordova combines imagery from popular culture with gold leaf, and his pictorial space is further enhanced by the juxtaposition of drawing and structural linguistics. These elements create a setting that has the potential for new and inspiring occurrences. The works are sometimes interrupted by strips of electrical tape, blocked-out areas, drawings that extend off the picture plane, or free verse from anonymous authors. The artist’s palette is reminiscent of the static found on a television screen; this imbues Cordova’s works with an unpredictability that is both unsettling and compelling.
This exhibition will consist of five projects that include drawing, sculpture, and video. These indicate a shift towards a nuanced re-investigation of the iconography in the artist’s new works. For example, in untitled (Huaca) (2009), various objects (reclaimed wood, a primary school textbook, a feather, and two Polaroid photos) are assembled axially in a Constructivist manner that also reflects the syncopation of an Andean musical composition. The 100 drawing suite Untitled (The Echo In Nicolas Guillen Landrians Bolex) (2008-2009) acknowledges that the artist’s traditional linguistic elements—image, text, and materials—are only credible in the present when they are anchored within a preexisting social system of communication. In describing his work, Cordova states: “The stories that one tells somebody else around the family dining room table, those are the stories you pass on and you learn that way, so that it remains sacred. That is one of the things I want to convey in my work...the concept of sacredness.”
A brochure featuring an essay by Andrés Estefane, a noted writer and historian based in New York and Santiago, will accompany the exhibition. Estefane will focus on “how Cordova’s drawings, collages, sculptures, and installations offer a preliminary answer [to] the questions raised by the Borgesian labyrinth.”
William Cordova was born in Lima, Peru, in 1971. He received his MFA from Yale University in 2004 and his BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1996. The artist has been featured in solo exhibitions at Fleming Museum, Burlington; Artpace, San Antonio; Threewalls, Chicago; PS.1 Contemporary Art Center, Long Island City; and Arndt & Partner, Zurich. His work has been included in many international exhibitions and biennials, including San Juan Triennial, San Juan (2009); Whitney Biennial, New York (2008); Utopia Station, 50th Venice Biennale, Venice (2003); and several groundbreaking group shows, such as NeoHooDoo at the Menil Collection in Houston, TX (2008), and Street Level at the Nasher Museum at Duke University in Durham, NC (2007). In 2010, Cordova will debut works in exhibitions at La Conservera Centro De Arte Contemporáneo, Ceutí, Murcia, Spain and The Contemporary Museum of Art, San Diego. Concurrent with William Cordova’s exhibition, the gallery will also be showing approximately 50 postcard-sized drawings by Ivory Cost artist Frédéric Bruly Bouabré. Bouabré’s poetic work, drawn in ballpoint pen and colored pencil, record the artist’s observations of the world around him. Consisting of cartoon-like images of people and objects bordered by text and decoration, the drawings acquire their strength by accumulation. The simple drawings, grouped together, create an encyclopedic documentation of the world as experienced by the artist.