Contrafiguras


Casas Riegner is pleased to announce the opening of CONTRAFIGURAS, a solo exhibition by artist Beatriz González a seminal figure in the Colombian and international art scenes.  Gathering a recent body of work featuring painting, works on paper, a furniture piece and a wallpaper, CONTRAFIGURAS is a reflection on the profound state of pain caused by the endless massacres occurring on a daily basis in Colombia.

Since the beginning of her career, Beatriz González has been a relentless observer of her country and a harsh critic of people’s tendency to easily forget tragic events resulting from an outpouring of images alluding to Colombia’s never ending conflict. For the production of the majority of the works found in the exhibition, González resorts to paper clippings most of which have been extracted from the newspaper Hoy Diario del Magdalena, for the creation of images that through their formal composition, enclose and highlight figures evoking pain. Moreover, these images emphasize the “antisiluetas” (anti-silhouettes), a pictorial resource of great significance for the artist in which silhouettes of figures weeping and sitting down, or picking up a wooden beam, or that of corpses blending with the natural landscape, lack clear edges, thus creating indistinct yet highly evocative images. Likewise, an unprecedented color palette is used to reminisce on the senseless tragedy that continues to invade Colombia.

CONTRAFIGURAS reveals a series of images that in the artist’s own words: “visibilize an internal struggle”. By negating clearly delineated and perfect forms, Beatriz Gonzalez’s images metaphorically speak of the impossibility of seeking truth amidst widespread tragedy.

Beatriz González was born in Bucaramanga, Colombia in 1932. She is regarded as one of the most influential living artists in Colombia that has achieved unparallelled international recognition. Her exhibition BRUMA is currently on view at Fragmentos, Espacio de Arte y Memoria in Bogotá. Selected recent exhibitions include: Another Energy: Power to Continue Challenging- 16 Women Artists from Around the World, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan (2021-2022); Beatriz González: A Retrospective, Museo de Arte Miguel Urrutia, Bogotá  (2020); Beatriz González, A Retrospective, MFAH,  Houston yand PAMM Miami, USA (2019); Beatriz González 1965-2017, KW Institute for  Contemporary Art Berlin, Germany, Palacio Velásquez, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte  Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain, CAPC Musée d’art Contemporain de Bordeaux (2017-2018);  Documenta 14, Athens and Kassel  (2017). Her work can be found in important art collections in Colombia and abroad including: MoMa New York, MFAH Houston, Tate Modern Londong, De Pont Museum Tilburg, Perez Art Museum Miami, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía Madrid; Museo de Arte Miguel Urrutia Bogotá; Museo Nacional de Colombia, among others.