Terence Gower: The Good Neighbour
On view:
through
Terence Gower: The Good Neighbour
Americas Society presents Terence Gower: The Good Neighbour, a solo exhibition focused on the Canadian artist’s relationship with Mexico since the early 1990s. The exhibition offers an overview of his work from his arrival in Mexico City in 1993 and his involvement with the city’s bustling international art scene. Following his training in photoconceptualism in Canada, Gower’s arrival in Mexico connected him to new aesthetic ideas, which allowed him to deconstruct traditional dichotomies of design and craft, and high and low culture. Created in the context of increasing globalization following the NAFTA agreement, his work from this period is a critical analysis of contemporary Mexican society, as well as the history of conceptualism in the Americas.
Featuring video, sculptural works, recreations of early wall installations, and archival materials, the exhibition also closely examines Gower’s post-’90s work on modernism in Mexican art and architecture. In addition, the exhibition will feature a new installation built around the artist’s research on the 1970 exhibition “David Alfaro Siqueiros: Paintings 1935-1967” at the Center for Inter-American Relations (now Americas Society). This exhibition fosters an important dialogue across the continent of North America, examining the cultural circles of Mexico in relation to the Canadian artist.
This exhibition is curated by Aimé Iglesias Lukin, director and chief curator of Visual Arts at Americas Society.
About the artist:
Terence Gower was born in British Columbia, Canada in 1965. He studied at Emily Carr College, spent the early years of his practice in Vancouver, Cologne, and Mexico City and has continued to show widely internationally. He has been based in New York City since 1995 where he has shown at MoMA PS1, New Museum, Queens Museum and many commercial and non-profit galleries. His work on the modern movement in Mexico was the subject of a major solo exhibition, Ciudad Moderna, at the Laboratorio Arte Alameda in 2005. His 2009 solo exhibition at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, DC treated the history of that institution. Internationally he has shown at Institut d’Art Contemporain Villurbaine, Lyon; MACBA, Barcelona; Tensta Konsthal, Stockholm; Museo Tamayo, Mexico City; MAC, Santiago, Chile; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin; MUSAC, León, Spain; and Audain Gallery, Vancouver, and he has participated in the Mercosul and Havana Biennials.
Edited by Aimé Iglesias Lukin and Karen Marta, this is a pocket book released to accompany the Americas Society exhibition of the same name on the works of the Canadian artist.
"The formal intrigue and social ramifications of Mexico’s mid-century architectural history motivate Gower’s work," says Art in America.
"Las imágenes de sus obras expuestas reaparecen de manera fantasmal", escribe Merry MacMasters sobre Terence Gower: The Good Neighbour en La Jornada.
Arts Summary highlights the exhibition focused on the Canadian artist's relationship with Mexico since the early 1990s.
The Canadian artist's exhibition, offering a critical analysis of contemporary Mexican society, is open from May 12 through July 17.
La exposición del artista canadiense, que ofrece un análisis crítico de la sociedad mexicana contemporánea, estará en exhibición desde el 12 de mayo al 17 de julio.
The presentation of Terence Gower: The Good Neighbour is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.
Additional support is provided by Fundación Jumex Arte Contemporáneo, the Consulate General of Canada in New York, and the Council for Canadian American Relations. In-kind support is provided by LABOR, Mexico City.
Americas Society acknowledges the generous support from the Arts of the Americas Circle members: Estrellita B. Brodsky; Virginia Cowles Schroth, Diana Fane; Galeria Almeida e Dale; Isabella Hutchinson; Carolina Jannicelli; Vivian Pfeiffer and Jeanette van Campenhout, Phillips; Gabriela Pérez Rocchietti; Erica Roberts; Sharon Schultz; Diana López and Herman Sifontes; and Edward J. Sullivan.
