VNH GALLERY
108 RUE VIEILLE DU TEMPLE 75003 PARIS
28 JUNE – 28 JULY 2018
Los misterios, VNH GALLERY, Paris, 2018. © Photo: Claire Dorn
VNH Gallery is delighted to announce the solo exhibition of the Chilean artist Sandra Vásquez de la Horra, titled “Los Misterios” (28 June – 28 July, 2018).
Graphite, gouache and sanguine on paper with wax
107 x 156 cm (42.13 x 61.42 inches)
Her drawings are the result of an interesting dosage of different cultures, with their own myths, religions and beliefs, all mingled together through the representation of fantasied and surreal characters born in a place where sacred and profane meet.
Graphite and gouache on paper with wax
102.5 x 134 cm
Eros (Life) and Thanatos (Death) are at the centre of the works presented in this exhibition, both coexisting in opposition as much as in balance such as depicted in Desde Siempre y Hasta Nunca where the concept of the preservation of life and sexual drives (Eros) is physically associated with a skeleton figure (Thanatos). Indeed, these two principles are symbolized in these drawings through the internal dialogue of the artist, a psychological analysis of her own sense of ambiguity and the complexity of her inner-self.
In the artist’s opinion, Latin-American art is about the research of identities and therefore it is generally closely attached to contemporary political issues. She however feels like she distinguishes herself from this supposedly unavoidable relationship as her artistic practice engages with popular culture and history using the language of different cults and religions such as the syncretistic religion Santa Muerte, borrowing from Catholicism, Aztec religion and Mexican folklore and mythology. The artist also refers directly to the Yoruba religion in Los Caminos de Yemayá. Yemaya is the mother of all children in the Earth and therefore source of life. She was attributed many different “paths” that can be understood as different lives or forms, all different possibilities each mother can experience.
Lady of the Land of the Death
Graphite and gouache on paper
with wax, 234 x 107 cm, 2018
Therefore it’s with no surprise that one of her greatest sources of inspiration are South American carnivals, as these enigmatic and haunting drawings represent distorted and grotesque figures that seem trapped between dream and chimera like in El Vacio de la Masácra or Capitan Deseo. Through the elaboration of a production process similar to a magical ritual where she dips her drawings into wax, Sandra Vásquez de la Horra implicitly confers to them the symbolic value of a relic and therefore a certain power that is supplemented in more explicit drawings such as Lady of the Land of the Dead.
Sandra Vásquez de la Horra arranges her works through large wall installations and will be presenting in this exhibition two of her three-dimensional houses, un-drawing the line between two mediums rarely brought together, sculpture and drawing.
Sandra Vásquez de la Horra was born in Viña del Mar (Chile) in 1967. She now lives and works in Berlin (Germany).
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VNH GALLERY
108 RUE VIEILLE DU TEMPLE
75003 PARIS