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Press Release
Checklist
Maria Martinez-Cañas
TETRALOGY: Lies (2005), Adaptation (2006), Tracing (2007), Duplicity As
Identity (2008-09)
May 6- June 26, 2010
The Julie Saul Gallery is pleased to announce our fourth solo exhibition
with Cuban-born, Miami-based artist Maria Martinez-Cañas. Entitled
Tetralogy (a compound of four distinct elements), the show
encompasses four bodies of work: Lies (2005) Adaptation
(2006) Tracing (2007) and Duplicity as Identity
(2008/09). This exhibition was originally shown in an expanded form at
the Freedom Tower in Miami from December 2009 to February 2010 and is
accompanied by a catalog with an essay by Gean Moreno, a Miami artist
and writer.
The overriding theme of these series is perception- questioning reality
and how things do not always appear as they seem. In Lies,
she has taken images from the press and using simple Photoshop techniques
has distorted and blurred the images into appearing very different from
what they represent. Often the scene is one of tragedy or disaster transformed
into something which seems benign, other times the reverse.
In the Adaptation and Tracing series Martinez-Cañas
mines photographs from the personal archive of renowned Cuban art curator
and critic Jose Gomez Sicre, who was also a family friend. Adaptation
uses documentary photographs of museum exhibitions and installations made
internationally by Sicre who served with the OAS for many years and curated
an important travelling show of Latin American art for MoMA with Alfred
Barr. Martinez-Cañas has removed the actual art images from these shots
leaving blank frames and empty pedestals- a haunting and enigmatic gesture.
In Tracing, Martinez-Cañas has used Sicre's more personal
photographs and modified them by blocking out certain areas, overlaying
tracing paper and recreating the images in drawings thereby transforming
the meaning and structure of the image. The initial works were then morphed
once again by scanning and creating an enlarged version on stretched canvas.
These works are unique.
The last installment of Tetraology, Duplicity as Identity,
is comprised of a series of frontal headshots of Martinez-Cañas and her
father, in which their faces are merged in varying degrees of percentages-
for example 20% Maria/80% Jose. There are two components here- large photographic
images on canvas, and a group of 25 merged portraits on 11 x 14" printing
out paper conceived as one work. A final punctuation in the project is
a group of unique Polaroid prints which are placed informally on a table
top. The images are so subtle and abstract they function like Rorschach
tests.
In the prolific career of Maria Martinez-Cañas, Tetraology represents
the most personal exploration of issues surrounding her exiled Cuban and
family identity. Her unique vision and hard-won ability to merge her explorations
of culture and identity combined with her insatiable curiosity about the
processes and implications of image-making and photography make her an
important artist in the cultural landscape.
Martinez-Cañas has been given many awards and recognitions, most recently
a major grant from the "No Strings Foundation". Among the more than sixty
public collections which include her work are the Museum of Modern Art,
Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum, New York Public Library
and the International Center of Photography, New York, The Tampa Museum,
Saint Louis Art Museum, Art Institute of Chicago, Miami Art Museum, Los
Angeles County Museum, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the San Francisco
Museum of Modern Art.
MARIA MARTINEZ-CAÑAS
TETRALOGY: LIES (2005), ADAPTATION (2006), TRACING (2007), DUPILICITY
AS IDENTITY (2008-09)
MAY 6- JUNE 26, 2010
Entrance:
Duplicity as Identity: Untitled [50%], 2008-09
archival pigment print on canvas, mounted to wood
43 x 43”
unique
Tracing: Untitled [068], 2007
hand drawing and pigment print
11 x 14”
unique
Tracing: Untitled [Wall], 2007
hand drawing and pigment print
11 x 14”
unique
Duplicity as Identity: Enigma, 2009
Fuji Instant color prints each, 3 1/3 x 4 1/4”
unique
Main Gallery
East wall:
Adaptation: XIII, 2006
pigment print
17 x 22”
edition 2/3
Adaptation: VI, 2006
pigment print
17 x 22”
edition 2/3
Adaptation: II, 2006
pigment print
17 x 22”
edition 2/3
Adaptation: XII, 2006
pigment print
17 x 22”
edition 2/3
Adaptation: IX, 2006
pigment print
17 x 22”
edition 2/3
North wall:
Tracing Series: Untitled [049], 2007
pigment print on canvas
40 x 40”
unique
Tracing Series: Untitled [Ferris Wheel], 2007
pigment print on canvas
40 x 40”
unique
Tracing Series: Untitled [040], 2007
pigment print on canvas
40 x 40”
unique
Tracing Series: Untitled [066], 2007
pigment print on canvas
40 x 40”
unique
West wall:
Duplicity As Identity: Enigma [John Doe + Richard Roe], 2008
25, gelatin silver chloride prints [P.O.P.]
14 x 11” each
unique
South wall:
Lies:Cityscape 002, 2005
pigment print on watercolor paper
27 x 33”
edition 1/3
Lies: No, 2005
pigment print on watercolor paper
35 x 26”
edition 1/3
Lies: 47, 2005
pigment print on watercolor paper
31 x 26”
edition 1/3
Prices include frames.
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For additional information contact the gallery
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Duplicity as Identity: Untitled [50%]
Adaptation: XIII
Adaptation: VI
Adaptation: II
Adaptation: XII
Adaptation: IX
Tracing Series: Untitled [049]
Tracing Series: Untitled [Ferris Wheel]
Tracing Series: Untitled [040]
Tracing Series: Untitled [066]
Duplicity As Identity: Enigma [John Doe + Richard Roe]
Lies:Cityscape 002
Lies: No
Lies: 47
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