ART CITIES:N.York-Juan Muñoz
“I sometimes feel that some of my work is about waiting, waiting for something to happen, on the one hand afraid in case it does happen, or even wishing that it had never occurred. It is like keeping a work in that state that we would call desire- keeping it at that level of desire, just holding it there that wish, that uncertainty, keeping the work still just here. Or like watching a door which one day a person might open.” -Juan Muñoz in Monologues and Dialogues, 1997.
By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo Marian Goodman Gallery Archive
The point of focus at the exhibition of selected works by Juan Muñoz, are three sculptural installations of the artist, these are: Thirteen Laughing at Each Other (2001), Many Times (1999) and a Figure Hanging from One Foot, (2001). These are accompanied by works, on paper and early wall sculptures. Including works such as empty or occupied balconies, isolated figures, and those laughing and in conversation, this group of works often puts viewers in an ambiguous position, looking but also seemingly being looked at. Juan Muñoz is known for his return to the human form in art and for his emphasis on the relationship of sculpture, architecture and the viewer. In sculptures, drawings, “conversation pieces” and immersive installations, he often places the viewer in dramatic relationship to space and objects that were at once architectural and implied narrative or silence, a sense that something had happened or was about to happen. His sources are ranged from literature, architecture, mythology, to music, film, theater, poetry. Ever the storyteller, his artistic activity extended to plays for radio and theater, writings and essays. Frequently, Muñoz’s sculptural tableaux offer the viewer an experience of physical passage through interior spaces, suggesting a psychological landscape of presence and distance, labyrinths and solitudes, urbanscapes and empty interiors, the collective and the individual.
Info: Marian Goodman Gallery, 4 West 57th Street, N. York, Duration 12/9/14-29/1/15, Days & Hours: Mon-Sat: 10:00-18:00, www.mariangoodman.com
