FIRST ESSAY, OMAR RODRIGUEZ-GRAHAM

FIRST ESSAY, OMAR RODRIGUEZ-GRAHAM

[Main room]

FEB 10 – MAR 20, 2022

Omar Rodríguez-Graham’s recent work, proposes a close dialogue between the history of art and contemporary methods of production through painting, drawing and sculpture. Within his canvases, an explicit interest for pictorial elements such as form. and color is perceived; Manipulated as a semi-digital language. Working regularly with paradigmatic artworks, Rodriguez-Graham appropriates and intervenes themes and motifs that have given shape to the global artistic tradition.

For his solo exhibition, First Essay, the artist has decided to pursue a collaborative approach where which the language generated within his paintings overflow into other disciplines. In this case, dance and fashion, organic extend his practice eliminating the staticity found within the two-dimensional format of painting. For Rodríguez-Graham, the work presented manifests itself as a space that captures and enthralls the viewer; A Total Artwork that through the addition of sounds and the movement of bodies, endows the viewer with an amplified sense of weight and concreteness. FIRST ESSAY, e an artistic collaboration in which a score of his own authorship develops constructive ideas found within his painting. Ideas that are simultaneously explored by the designer Guillermo Vargas (1/8 Takamura) and the choreographer Diego Vega, from their own respective creative practices. It is within this space that Painting is expanded into a system that emerges from shared elements such as color, shape, meter, time, transition, movement and rhythm, with the intent of extracting itself from its spatial, two-dimensional and temporal limitations.

As part of Arróniz’s activities for Zona MACO 2022, and due to the recent sanitary conditions, the exhibition will open to the public in February during Mexico City’s Art Week, and public performances will be held under strict limits of attendance. Rodriguez-Graham received his BA from Drew University in Madison, New Jersey, and an MFA from the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He has received the FONCA Jóvenes Creadores and Sistema Nacional de Creadores grants. Among the residencies that he has attended The Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, The Banff Center & Fondazione MACC residencies, stand out.

 

OMAR RODRÍGUEZ GRAHAM + STUDIO

Studio Manager: Romeo Mijangos Cavero

Production managers: Mariana Paniagua Cortés, Fernando Álvarez Robledo

Studio assistants:

Claudia Anahí Juárez Suárez

Oscar Damián Ramírez Crail

Augusto castellanos Jiménez

Omar Alejandro Ruiz Avilez

Paulina Hernández Franco

Ana Beatriz parra Solis

Laura diana Romero Jimenez

Pavel Elvira calderón

DANCE

Choreography: Diego Vega Solorza

Dancers:

Carla Patricia Segovia Flores

Yansi Méndez Bautista

Ismael Tonatihu Saguilan Acevedo

Sergio Ulises Vázquez Contreras

Movement advisors: Diego Vértiz, Carla Patricia Segovia Flores, Sergio Ulises Vázquez Contreras.

Choreography Assistants: Juan Carlos Estrada de la Cruz (Shocker).

COSTUMES

1/8 Takamura

Design: Memo Vargas

Studio manager: Luis Gómez

Seamsetresses: Carmen Cruz, Teresa Segovia y Patricia Ochoa.

Assitants: Isabel Pomposo, Montserrat Garza y Gustavo Alcocer.

MUSIC

Composition: Omar Rodriguez-Graham

Review, instrumentation and transcription: Eduardo Trillo Becerra

Musical direction and violin: Pearce Littler

Viola I: Isela Amacalli del Ángel

Viola II: Emma Gabriela Pérez Ramírez

Violoncello: Heather Seavey Brumund

Double bass: Jesús Rodríguez Cervantes

Musical direction support: Enrique Galván Ramírez

ILLUMINATION

FARO

Sofía Arredondo

Andrés Bravo

Cecilia Gónzalez

Montserrat Quintanar

We Make Bang

Guillermo Zárate

CRACK

Gerry Ponce de León

Leandro Gabriel Forti

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

Morgana Ludlow, Gustavo Arróniz, Ana Hop, Jorge Ballina, Marcelino Pérez, Hernán Cortes, Valeria Mieres, Juan Pablo De la Torre, Leticia Arróniz, Beto Adame, Diego Durazo, Pepe Islas, Archipiélago, Roberto Velázquez, Arte Abierto.