Microsoft word - maximo press release final.doc

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 2011
Sasha Ali, Exhibitions Coordinator
323.937.4230 x25 / [email protected]
Máximo González: Playful
CAFAM presents the first solo exhibition in Los Angeles of Mexico City-based artist Máximo González January 28 – May 6, 2012
LOS ANGELES, CA — Máximo González: Playful is the first major solo exhibition in Los Angeles of Mexico City-based Argentinean artist Máximo González. Curated by Alma Ruiz, senior curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles, this compel ing exhibition wil be featured at the Craft and Folk Art Museum from January 28 through May 6, 2012. Though González is best known for creating art objects out of devalued currency from Mexico, this exhibition is a journey through a decade of González’s playful investigations into contemporary politics, popular culture, and the reutilization of material. Witty, poetic and slightly subversive, González puts a fresh face on craft. Left to right: Magma (detail), woven Mexican pesos, 2010. Timeline (detail), school-book prints, Styrofoam, mirror ball, glue, 2005. Courtesy of the artist Consisting of instal ations, murals and weavings made from global currencies, videos, symbolic objects, and performance, González’s work demonstrates a range of materials and messages. Infusing ordinary, everyday items with a handmade delicacy, González’s work generates new and unexpected reflections on the relevance of utility and value. He turns the mundane into precious and beautiful objects that become symbols of the moment we are living in. By marrying traditional processes such as loom weaving and paper cutting with the politics of contemporary social history, González uses craft to generate new narratives out of historic events and col ective memory. Works such as Aluminum 1886, a large-scale instal ation of precariously arranged vintage aluminum serving platters, trays, and vessels indicate the fluctuating nature of the value of aluminum. Warning Monument, an instal ation composed entirely of red plastic house wares, transforms the commonplace into a stunning sculptural instal ation. With Magma, González extends our accepted notions of what craft can be. Weaving
discarded pieces of Mexican pesos into large-scale textiles, his careful re-crafting of
things we have deemed worthless lends new insights into how we value the
handmade. Finally, Wait brings us a young soldier who sews sequins onto his own
uniform, an evolving piece that involves a live performance at the opening reception.
The exhibition wil be accompanied by Changarrito, a project that was recently
exhibited at the 54th Venice Biennale. Based on the vending carts prevalent in the
marketplaces of Mexico, Changarrito is a smal sculptural cart that González exhibits
throughout the world as an alternative platform for local artists to show their work.
During the exhibition run, Changarrito wil be stationed outside the museum
alongside the food trucks that line Wilshire Boulevard’s Museum Row during
lunchtime hours, where select works by local artists, writers, and other cultural
participants wil be shown.

Born in Paraná, Entre Ríos, Argentina in 1971, Máximo González studied at the
Institute of Art Josefina Contte in Corrientes, where he obtained a Teaching Degree
in Visual Arts. He has worked extensively to create public art projects throughout
Argentina. Since 2003, Máximo has lived and worked in Mexico City. He has
completed 27 solo exhibitions and special projects, and has participated in more than
66 group exhibitions in Latin America, United States, Canada, Europe, and the
Middle East. Notably, he showed Where Have Al the Flowers Gone? as part of the
Poetics of the Handmade exhibition at MOCA in Los Angeles; The Tree: From the
Sublime to the Social at the Vancouver Art Gal ery, Canada; Mexico: Politics /
Poetics at San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA; and Something Like
an Answer to Something, Artane Gal ery, Istanbul, Turkey. In 2010, he completed an
artist residency at the Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago, resulting in the solo
exhibition Material Poems.
A public opening reception for Máximo González: Playful, sponsored by the
Consulate General of Argentina, wil take place on Saturday, January 28 from 6 p.m.
to 9.p.m.
Public Programs
In addition to exhibition-related adult and family workshops, curator Alma Ruiz Changarrito, aluminum, 2005 – 2011. wil give a public talk. Other events wil include a family Craftlab family workshop. Craftlab drop in workshops are held on the second Saturday of each month from
1:30 to 3:30.

The Craft and Folk Art Museum (CAFAM) champions cultural understanding by presenting exhibitions and programs
that bridge local and global cultures, and inspire a sense of inquiry and creativity within al people. Located on Los
Angeles’ historic Miracle Mile, it is the city’s only institution exclusively dedicated to celebrating craft and folk art. CAFAM
works to recognize emerging artists and make art accessible to al audiences, serving as a forum in which art can be
presented and described by the artists and communities who create it. Al exhibitions and public programs are developed
in close col aboration with community cultural groups to ensure authentic expression.

In addition to the exhibitions on view, CAFAM hosts the Shop@CAFAM, an on-site and online shopping experience that
purveys fair-trade art and handicrafts from local and global artists and artisans who are rooted in both traditional and
contemporary craft.
For current program and exhibition information cal 323-937-4230 or visit www.cafam.org.
Location: 5814 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90036

Admission: FREE on the first Wednesday of every month

Regularly: $7 for adults; $5 for students and seniors; free for CAFAM members

Hours: Tuesday – Friday, 11am – 5pm; Saturday/Sunday, 12pm – 6 pm; closed Mondays.

Museum Tours: For group tour information, cal 323-937-4230.

Source: http://w.cafam.org/images/PDFs/MaximoPressRelease.pdf