(Image: Contras from La otra Escuela (Fan College Apparel), T-shirts, 2018, courtesy of the artist)
This new series of work by Mexican Canadian artist Carlos Colín merges symbols of Latin American conceptualist art, and Latin American colonialist history, past and present, and its diaspora. Working with archives, books, footage, and audio material related to Latin American history, the artist creates a work based on photographs, text and/or audio with parallels between, arts, politics, religion, and society.
Carlos Colín was born in Guadalajara, Mexico in 1980 and grew up in Mexico City. His practice explores how art can create links between Latin American societies and its diasporas by looking at how artists use local knowledge, realities, and histories in social resistance as new expressions of social and cultural progress. Colín holds a Master’s of Fine Arts degree from the National School of Fine Art in Mexico City, and a second MFA from the University of British Columbia. He is currently a PhD candidate in the Interdisciplinary Studies Graduate Program at UBC where his research explores the manifestations of baroque as a colonial legacy in Latin America and its diasporas. Colín was awarded the 2016 Emerging Artist Mayor’s Arts Awards for the City of Vancouver in Visual Arts; the 2017 Artist Studio Award Program; and the Canada Council grant to the Research and Create component in 2018. His work has been shown at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria; Gallery 1515, Vancouver; and La Boligoma Art Gallery, Mexico City.
grunt’s new Reading Room:
The Reading Room is an opportunity to discuss themes in Carlos Colín’s exhibition, Strident aesthetic. Towards a new liberation, through short theoretical, historical, or literary texts selected by Carlos Colín and Glenn Alteen. The Reading Room will take place over three Wednesday evenings: February 13, 20, and 27, 5:30PM to 7:30PM, at grunt gallery. The artist will be in attendance! Please email Nellie, nellie@grunt.ca, to register or for more information. Readings will be emailed to you in early January 2019.
Opening Reception January 10, 7 – 10 pm
The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue featuring an essay by Dana Claxton. View/download here