October 12–December 2, 2022
The University Galleries of the University of Florida (UF) will host Painting Situations: Sigfredo Chacón and Liliana Porter / ISLAA Artist Initiative from October 12 to December 2, 2022. The ISLAA Artist Seminar Initiative / UF series’ inaugural show is organized by Jess Fuenmayor and Kaira M. Cabaas.
The Artist Seminar Initiative was created by the Institute for Studies on Latin American Art (ISLAA) to assist academic institutions in developing close interactions between students and active Latin American artists. The work of well-known artists Sigfredo Chacón and Liliana Porter served as inspiration for this inaugural iteration at University Galleries, which consisted of a curatorial seminar and an exhibition over the course of two semesters. Members of the curatorial advisory committee for the exhibition and participants in Jess Fuenmayor’s spring 2022 seminar in art history and museum studies.
The exhibition Painting Situations: Sigfredo Chacón and Liliana Porter features the works of two influential conceptual artists from Latin America. The curators decided to concentrate on Chacón and Porter’s most famous works: her Forced Labor series and his Pinturasparlantes (Speaking-paintings). In doing so, the show emphasizes how the works on display share a common goal despite the use of very varied aesthetic tactics by each artist. Each artist’s work makes a critical observation about painting as a medium and as a scenario that appeals to viewers’ real-world encounters and awareness of social circumstances. Porter turns to the invisible work of painting and how gender and class intersect outside of painting’s traditional frame, while Chacón’s practice focuses on tearing down painting’s modernist programs by enscribing language within its visual field.
Painting Situations is complemented by the second exhibition Más Situaciones: Sigfredo Chacón and Liliana Porter (parts I and II), which is organized in the Gary R. Libby Focus Gallery as a part of the series “On View: Curatorial Studies” by doctoral candidates Helena Chen and Laura Colkitt. University Galleries will release a fully illustrated catalogue with essays by the curators and interviews with the artists.
The Institute for Studies on Latin American Art and the School of Art + Art History, University of Florida, Gainesville, are the sponsors of the exhibition program and publication. The UF Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere and the Harn Eminent Scholar Chair in Art History are two more event sponsors (Rothman Endowment).
Additional information
The Institute for Studies on Latin American Art (ISLAA) advances scholarship and public engagement with art from Latin America through its program of exhibitions, publications, lectures, and partnerships with universities and art institutions. For more information, please visit here.
The graduate program in Art History at the University of Florida offers a global art history program covering a breadth of content from across time and space. The program also offers a graduate certificate in curatorial studies. For more information, please visit here.
Programs and events
Opening reception: October 12, 5–7pm
Gary R. Libby University Gallery (400 SW 13th Street, Gainesville, FL)
Exhibition tour: October 21, 5–6pm, tour by Laura Colkitt of “Painting Situations” and “Más Situaciones” (Part I)
Gary R. Libby University Gallery & Gary R. Libby Focus Gallery (1370 Inner Road, Gainesville, FL)
Exhibition tour: November 10, 5–6pm, tour by Helena Chen of “Painting Situations” and “Más Situaciones” (Part II)
Gary R. Libby University Gallery & Gary R. Libby Focus Gallery
Exhibition tour: November 16, 5–6pm, tour by Jesús Fuenmayor of “Painting Situations”
Gary R. Libby University Gallery
Lecture: November 16, 6–7pm, Lecture by Sérgio B. Martins: “Art as Project, Project as Art”
105 Fine Arts Building B