Elizabeth Xi Bauer Gallery presents: Antonio Pichillá

Elizabeth Xi Bauer Gallery presents Antonio Pichillá’s first solo exhibition in Europe. This exhibition closely follows Inherited Threads, at Tate Modern, a new collection display of works by North and Latin American artists that were recently acquired by the institution, as well as Antonio Pichillá Quiacaín: Tejiendo El Paisaje, a video installation at the Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara.

For the exhibition, Pichillá will experiment with ways of hanging and displaying his works, including: hanging them from the ceiling; video installation; as well as utilizing found objects from nature and alongside those that are man-made.

Antonio Pichillá focuses on the ever-developing connections between western contemporary art and the vernacular tradition of craft. Using natural materials Pichillá draws from Mayan epistemology to: “Restlessly look for a bond that integrates with the environment as something inexact, uncodified. I struggle to give form to transitory states”.

Examining the ancient culture of his native Tz’utujil heritage and the postcolonial notion of a homogeneous national identity, Pichillá’s works are an act of resistance to otherness and binary constructions of identity. Instead, his work celebrates the heterogeneity of everyday contemporary Tz’utujil life. From his studio at Lake Atitlán the artist’s practice is driven by anthropological research into Guatemala’s urban and rural regions. Pichillá is interested in the relationship between found natural objects, such as rocks and branches and his textile works, as well as man-made objects.

Elizabeth Xi Bauer Gallery
Fuel Tank, 8-12. Creekside
London, United Kingdom
elizabethxibauer.com