Masa Gallery is marking its fifth anniversary with the launch of two solo exhibitions, taking place at the art and design collective’s first permanent space in Mexico City (on view 8 February – 8 April 2023). The vast colonial house, previously owned by art patron Federico Sánchez Fogarty, makes a historic base for Masa to continue to champion motifs of conceptuality in Mexican design, having first launched as a nomadic gallery in 2019.
Artist and designer Brian Thoreen and multidisciplinary conceptual artist Mario García Torres muse on these themes in shows which challenge the traditional functions of materiality. Thoreen nods to his reputation for challenging the status quo in 'Non-Zero-Sum', a collection of ten functional and six non-functional works.
Thoreen delights in a juxtaposition of materials in pieces which may not be as they first appear. A chair, fully crafted from folded and stacked neoprene, weighs in at nearly two tons yet makes a temptingly tactile place to perch. Large candles made from raw cast beeswax become sensual sculptures, while a table in free-form rubber with cast bronze boxes and hammered copper celebrates both texture and functionality. The dichotomy continues in artworks which link the digital and analogue worlds, with charcoal sticks on paper becoming a landscape in binary code, forming a triptych of coded information the viewer can’t access.
For García Torres, function is also rethought in 'The Space Under My Chair & The Music I Was Listening To'. García Torres is directly inspired by Bruce Nauman’s concrete creation 'A Cast of the Space Under My Chair' for an aluminium stool which reflects on how the body interacts with negative space, imbuing the classic sculpture with a new functionality. It is a consideration carried through to ‘The Work I Painted This Monochrome While Repeatedly Listening to Gasolina by Daddy Yankee', electrically plugged monochrome paintings which are both aesthetic items and pieces of silent sound equipment thanks to an LED light.
The exhibitions build on Masa founders Age Salajõe, Brian Thoreen and Héctor Esrawe’s preoccupation with collaborative design, which becomes a celebration of local contemporary artists. They add: ‘Counterbalancing the preconceptions surrounding the dialogue between art, design, space, function, or lack thereof is the essence of what we do.’
The exhibition takes place from 8 February to 8 April 2023 at Masa Gallery
Address: Joaquín A. Pérez 6, San Miguel Chapultepec I Secc, Miguel Hidalgo, 11850 Ciudad de México, CDMX, Mexico
