Moment

While Latin American art has developed an original take on geometric abstraction, this genre has not been fully explored in a public forum – contemporary art audiences tend to be more familiar with work that overtly addresses the continent’s social issues. The artists in Moment present alternative ways of thinking about these conditions, but through a more oblique approach. Latin American abstraction continues to mature, reinterpreting tradition, communicating with its own landscape and history, and engaging with the creative dynamics of the present.

In this exhibition, curators Maria Iovino and Astrid Bastin pair the work of Colombian artist Beatriz Olano and Venezuelan artist Magdalena Fernández. Olano's work broadens notions of structure, extending the confines of spaces where she situates her projects with minimum, precise traces. Fernández recognizes the universal connection between geometry and nature, a trajectory she shares with Piet Mondrian and Hélio Oiticica, among others. For Fernández, the legacy of geometric abstraction can be reinvented through direct encounters with the natural world. Moment articulates the ideas of Olano and Fernández in a site-specific project at the Doris McCarthy Gallery. Nature and artifice intermingle, freeing perception in a game of geometries that transforms the gallery while bringing out its particular characteristics.