Gustavo Pérez Monzón, Untitled, 1986. Mixed media on board. 23.62 x 36.22 in (60 x 92 cm)

Courtesy of CIFO | Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation

GUSTAVO PÉREZ MONZÓN: TRAMAS 

Curated by Elsa Vega and René Francisco Rodríguez

Museo Morelense de Arte Contemporáneo Juan Soriano.

Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico.

June 8 - September 2, 2018

The Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation (CIFO) is pleased to present Gustavo Pérez Monzón: Tramas, a solo exhibition by the Cuban artist Gustavo Pérez Monzón, opening June 8, 2018 at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Morelense ‘Juan Soriano’ in Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico. Curated by Elsa Vega and René Francisco Rodríguez, Gustavo Pérez Monzón: Tramas brings together nearly 50 works, created between 1979 and the late 1980s, which depict the artist’s practice during the final decade that he lived and worked in Cuba. The exhibition, organized by CIFO and drawn from the Ella Fontanals-Cisneros Collection, was previously on view at the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de La Habana, in conjunction with the 2015 Havana Biennial, and the CIFO Art Space in Miami, FL. Gustavo Pérez Monzón: Tramas will be on view through September 2, 2018.

The exhibit Gustavo Pérez Monzón: Tramas has an anthological character that articulates a selection of the most representative works produced by the artist during the last decade he lived in Cuba. Heirs of the conceptualist tradition, the paintings, drawings and installations conceived by Pérez Monzón during that prolific period reflect a sensitivity to Geometric Abstraction, Abstract Expressionism and Spatialism. Notable, among the many works in that wide and enigmatic set, are his works on paper of the Serie A - Serie B (1981), his Configurations (1982), his card games of the Tarot (1983, 1985 and 1986) and the drawings on cardboard that make up his important work 15 625 cm3 of Relations (1981/2015). All of them reveal the artist's interest in synthesizing diverse references within a very personal proposal that places his attention on mathematics and numerology as starting points.

The work of Gustavo Pérez Monzón (1956) became known in Cuba in the late seventies with his participation in several collective shows, including the legendary Volume One (1981) exhibit that marked a before and after in the history of Cuban art. His first solo exhibition took place in the House of Culture of Jaruco under the title Full Moon, together with Ricardo Brey (1980), and the following year he exhibited his Series A - Series B (1981) at the National Museum of Fine Arts Cuba. His works were also included in the Paris Biennial (1982).

Pérez Monzón belongs to a generation that in the early eighties introduced significant formal and conceptual changes in the visual arts through experimental practices, the incorporation of new themes, and a different approach to a wider range of possibilities and references. This generation, with their urge for innovation reinvigorated the Cuban art scene.

This exhibit brings together some of his most emblematic installations, which earned him recognition in Cuba as one of the most notable artists of his generation. Vilos (1981/2015), Hilos (1984/2015), and Tramas (1989/2015) are site-specific works that the artist has recreated especially for this occasion and in dialogue with the space.

By his own decision and for more than twenty years, Pérez Monzón stopped painting and dedicated a large part of his professional life to artistic education. He has lives in Mexico since the early nineties and was the founding director of the visual arts area at the Morelense Center for the Arts of the city of Cuernavaca.

This exhibition, composed in its entirety by works from the Ella Fontanals-Cisneros Collection, was initially presented -with great public and critical success- in the halls of the National Museum of Fine Arts Cuba, coinciding with the twelfth edition of the Havana Biennial (May-August 2015) and later at the CIFO Art Space in Miami, Florida (December 2015-May 2016).

Elsa Vega y René Francisco Rodríguez

Curators

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