Carolina Caycedo, Nuestro Tiempo/ Our Time, 2018. Hand-dyed artisanal fishing net, metal chain, palm mat, wool charm, and tambourine, 48 x 28 x 18 inches (121. 9 x 11 x 7.1 cm). Private collection, Los Angeles. © Carolina Caycedo
Carolina Caycedo, Ósun, 2018. Hand-dyed artisanal fishing net, steel chain, steel pot lid, mirror, enamel, spray paint, hoop earrings, paracord, string, and brass handles, 120 x 24 x 24 inches (304.8 x 61 x 61 cm). Courtesy the artist and Instituto de Visión, Bogotá, Columbia. © Carolina Caycedo
ICA/Boston opens Carolina Caycedo: Cosmotarrayas on January 20
Presentation features hanging sculptures from the artist’s Be Dammed series
(Boston, MA – November 14, 2019) The Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston (ICA) presents a solo exhibition of Los Angeles-based artist Carolina Caycedo (b. 1978 in London, UK). Through a variety of mediums including sculpture, performance, drawing, and video, Caycedo’s artwork investigates vital questions related to asymmetrical power relations, dispossession, extraction of resources, and environmental justice. The ICA will present the culmination of Caycedo’s Cosmotarrayas, a series of hanging sculptures assembled with handmade fishing nets and other objects collected during field research in different riverine communities affected by the privatization of waterways. On view January 20 through July 12, 2020, Carolina Caycedo: Cosmotarrayas is organized by Jeffrey De Blois, Assistant Curator and Publications Manager.
The Cosmotarrayas are part of an ongoing project started in 2012 titled Be Dammed that has examined the wide-reaching impacts of dams built along waterways by transnational corporations, particularly those in Latin American countries such as Brazil or Colombia (where Caycedo was raised and frequently returns). Powerful objects borne out of extensive fieldwork in communities on “the front lines of environmental justice,” as she says, each Cosmotarraya is intimately linked to specific people, rivers, traditions, and cultures. As such, the Cosmotarrayas demonstrate the meaningful connectivity and exchange at the heart of Caycedo’s practice, as many of the nets and other objects were entrusted to her by individuals no longer able to use them. At the same time, they also represent the dispossession of these individuals and their continued resistance to corporations and governments seeking to control the flow of water and thus their way of life.
“For Caycedo, the material qualities of the fishing net—porous, malleable, and woven by hand—offer a potent counterpoint to the immovable, destructive architecture of the dam. The Cosmotarrayas embody a form of resistance that simultaneously raises our consciousness about land, history, and culture,” said De Blois.
About the artist
Caycedo was born in London in 1978. She received a M.F.A. from Roski School of Fine Arts at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, and a B.F.A. from Los Andes University, Bogotá, Colombia. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally with recent exhibitions at venues such as Broad Art Museum, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Tufts University Art Galleries, Medford, MA; Banff Center for Arts and Creativity, Alberta, Canada; Henry Art Gallery, Seattle; Nottingham Contemporary, UK; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Nuevo Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, Guatemala; Vincent Price Art Museum, Los Angeles; and Espacio Odeon, Bogotá, among others. Her work has been included in several major recurring group exhibitions, including the 2018 edition of Made in L.A. at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; the 2016 Bienal de São Paulo, Brazil; the 2014 Berlin Biennale; the 2009 New Museum Triennial, New York; the 2006 Whitney Biennial, New York; and the 2003 Venice Biennale, Italy.
About the ICA
Since its founding in 1936, the ICA has shared the pleasures of reflection, inspiration, imagination, and provocation that contemporary art offers with its audiences. A museum at the intersection of contemporary art and civic life, the ICA has advanced a bold vision for amplifying the artist’s voice and augmenting art’s role as educator, incubator, and convener for social engagement. Its innovative exhibitions, performances, and educational programs provide access to contemporary art, artists, and the creative process, inviting audiences of all ages and backgrounds to participate in the excitement of new art and ideas. Spanning two locations across Boston Harbor, the ICA offers year-round programming at its iconic building in Boston’s Seaport and seasonal programming (May-September) at the Watershed in an East Boston shipyard.
The ICA is located at 25 Harbor Shore Drive, Boston, MA, 02210. The Watershed is located at 256 Marginal Street, East Boston, MA 02128. For more information, call 617-478-3100 or visit our website at icaboston.org. Follow the ICA at Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Acknowledgements
Carolina Caycedo: Cosmotarrayas is presented by Max Mara.
Tschabalala Self, Lite, 2018. Acrylic, flashe, milk paint, gum, and fabric on canvas, 96 x 84 inches (243.8 x 213.4 cm). Acquired through the generosity of the Acquisitions Circle, Tristin and Martin Mannion, Patrick Planeta and Santiago Varela, Rob Larsen, and anonymous donors. © Tschabalala Self
Tschabalala Self, Bellyphat, 2016. Painted canvas, fabric, oil, acrylic, and Flashe on canvas. 80 × 60 inches (203.2 × 152.4 cm). Collection of Craig Robins. Courtesy of the artist and Pilar Corrias Gallery, London © Tschabalala Self
Tschabalala Self: Out of Body opens at ICA/Boston on January 20
First Boston presentation and largest
exhibition to date of Tschabalala Self’s work
(Boston, MA – November 13, 2019) On January 20, the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston (ICA) opens Tschabalala Self: Out of Body, the first Boston presentation and largest exhibition to date of New Haven-based artist Tschabalala Self (b. 1990 in Harlem, NY). Self is at the forefront of a generation of young artists who are advancing new modes of figurative painting that center African American selfhood and intersectional identities. Her large-scale figurative paintings integrate hand-printed and found textiles, drawing, printmaking, sewing, and collage techniques to tell stories of black metropolitan life, the body, and humanity. Tschabalala Self: Out of Body features a selection of Self’s recent painting and sculptures—including new works made for the exhibition. On view through July 12, 2020, this exhibition is organized by Ellen Tani, former Assistant Curator at the ICA, and currently coordinated by Ruth Erickson, Mannion Family Curator.
Self’s work is rooted in her own experience growing up in Harlem in a female-dominated family, yet her work also traverses diverse artistic and craft traditions. Her expressive, figurative painting practice employs eclectic materials and techniques—like hand-printed and found textiles, stitching, paper, and painted fabric—in service of characters that possess an ordinary grace grounded in reality.
Tschabalala Self: Out of Body features artworks that represent singular figures, couplings, and everyday social exchanges inspired by black metropolitan life. Together, they articulate forms of embodiment and expressions of humanity through exaggerated forms and exuberant textures, pointing to the human figure’s limitless capacity to represent imagined states, memories, aspirations, and emotions. Magnificent and coded, mysterious and often humorous, Self’s characters are reflections of the artist or people she can imagine meeting in Harlem, her hometown.
About the artist
Tschabalala Self was born in Harlem, New York in 1990, and lives and works in New Haven and New York. She received her MFA in painting/printmaking from the Yale School of Art (2015), and her BA in Studio Arts from Bard College (2012). Recent solo exhibitions include the Frye Museum, Seattle (2019); the Yuz Museum, Shanghai (2018); and Parasol Unit for Contemporary Art, London (2017).
About the ICA
Since its founding in 1936, the ICA has shared the pleasures of reflection, inspiration, imagination, and provocation that contemporary art offers with its audiences. A museum at the intersection of contemporary art and civic life, the ICA has advanced a bold vision for amplifying the artist’s voice and augmenting art’s role as educator, incubator, and convener for social engagement. Its innovative exhibitions, performances, and educational programs provide access to contemporary art, artists, and the creative process, inviting audiences of all ages and backgrounds to participate in the excitement of new art and ideas. Spanning two locations across Boston Harbor, the ICA offers year-round programming at its iconic building in Boston’s Seaport and seasonal programming (May-September) at the Watershed in an East Boston shipyard.
The ICA is located at 25 Harbor Shore Drive, Boston, MA, 02210. The Watershed is located at 256 Marginal Street, East Boston, MA 02128. For more information, call 617-478-3100 or visit our website at icaboston.org. Follow the ICA at Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Acknowledgments
Tschabalala Self: Out of Body is presented by Max Mara.
This project is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.
Additional support is generously provided by Fotene Demoulas and Tom Coté, Ted Pappendick and Erica Gervais Pappendick, The Coby Foundation, Ltd, and the Jennifer Epstein Fund for Women Artists.
