ALLAN VILLAVICENCIO ALLAN VILLAVICENCIO Allan Villavicencio was awarded the Honorary Distinction for the XVIII Rufino ( City, Mexico, 1987) Tamayo Painting Biennial (Museo Tamayo, , 2018) and was re- Lives and works in Mexico City, Mexico. cipient of FONCA fellowships in the Young Artists Category standing out with three iterations (2010-2011, 2013-2014 and 2017-2018). Allan Villavicencio thinks of the pictorial process as a metabolism in constant transformation. His practice considers the production of spatia- He has been a resident of Casa Wabi (Puerto Escondido, MX, 2020); Cité des Arts (Paris, FR, 2019); and Espacio Tomado (Lima, PE, 2018). lity in and around paintings, in situ interventions and sculptures; building a “residual landscape”. The latter generates tension between a sense of His work has received international attention with exhibitions such as La re- wholeness and a fragmented nature within different plastic processes of cherche du rayon vert, curated by Anaïs Lepage at Maëlle Galerie (Paris, 2019); excavation and aggregation. Pétalos del asfalto, IK Projects (Lima, 2019); Tropismes, curated by heiwata at Cité des Arts (Paris, 2016); or Capital flight, Chalton Gallery (London, 2016). Villavicencio observes how the fragments in his daily environment have the capacity to delimit and extract themselves, this contextualizes the Allan Villavicencio has been part of solo and group shows in several institu- pretext to seek the visible in unfolded perspectives as well as in the vir- tions, such as Museo Tamayo (Mexico City, 2019); Museo de Arte Contem- tuality of the changing state of matter. His work highlights the desire to poráneo de (Oaxaca, 2018); Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil (Mexico City, see through color as a visual interruption as well as a corporeal activity; 2018); Centro Roberto Garza Sada (CRGS-UDEM, Monterrey, 2018); Celda configuring a phantasmagoria within a symbolic narrative of the space Contemporánea - Universidad del Claustro de Sor Juana (Mexico City, perception. 2016); Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Sonora (Hermosillo, 2017); Cité des Arts (Paris, 2016); and Parque Fundidora (Monterrey, 2015).

His works are part of numerous important collections such as Museo MATE (Lima, PE); Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Aguascalientes (Aguascalientes, MX); Colección Arena (, SP); or JM SR Collection (Querétaro, MX).

In 2020 he inaugurated TRANSCAPES, a large-scale fresco inside a XVII century building in Mexico City. After several collaborations, he will pre- sent his first solo show at Galería Karen Huber (Mexico City) in April 2021.

Allan Villavicencio is co-director of Fuego, a Mexico City based space dedicated to the promotion and exhibition of contemporary painting practices. SELECTED PROJECTS 2016 - 2021 Pieles ciegas (Blind skin), solo show, 2021, upcoming*, Galería Karen Huber, Mexico City.

This exhibition consists of a series of mostly small-format paintings and sculp- tures arranged around a large-dimension landscape, El cortejo [Courtship]. Painted as a triptych, this work is wagered on the contradiction between visual illusions on the canvas and how one of its panels plays out in tension with the physical space of the gallery.

This new body of work continues my exploration of perception in painting. With a visual language that connects tangible and virtual realities, I animate diverse visions in which the materiality of color acts both as visual interruption and bodily activity.

The works that make up Pieles ciegas generate an oscillation between surfaces and volumes, as an “invitation to explore a ‘residual landscape’ (landscape-fragment) created out of reminiscences of my everyday surroundings.” Here, both shapes and motifs appear and disappear in successive mutations and gradations over the course of a process of pictorial composition that has extended its residues into the gallery.

In this sense, my spatial imaginary refers to the changing state of material during an image’s construction, both visually and physically. By juxtaposing accumulation and excavation – and making use of multiple layers of paint and textiles – my work reveal the hidden, the impalpable, and the phantas- magoric side of things. Pieles ciegas thus plays with a material eroticism that reveals metaphors for the formed and the formless; of the inanimate and the living.

Pliegues I 2020-211 * Exhibitions views and register of El cortejo painting missing. oil and acrylic on linen A short selection of pieces that are part of the exhibition follows. 35 x 30 cm El pretendiente 2021 oil, acrylic, spray painting, recycled fabric on sewed linen 180 x 150 cm Cortina 2020-21 oil on linen 110 x 80 cm

Cripsis 2020 oil, acrylic, recycled fabric on sewed linen 45 x 40 cm Todos éramos animales, éramos tierra (We all were animals, we were soil), Project in collaboration with Casa Wabi, November 2020, San José Manialtepec, Oaxaca, MX.

This community project is a herbarium thought in the manner of a mural book that takes as a reference the endemic plants and trees of San José Manialtepec. Starting with the collection of drawings (created by stu- dents of the Filomeno Mata Elementary School) and helped by the oral tradition of the region; a mural with clay bas-reliefs inspired in endemic plants’s drawings with their names was presented at the school. Then the project can last in extreme weather conditions and can be consulted by students. One of the purposes was to cause a pictorial approach and a sensitive look to develop the contemplation of the environment. In this way, the landscape not only conforms an idea about “the natural”, it is also revealed itself as a community-built reality. Todos éramos animales, éramos tierra, installation view, 2020, San José Manialtepec, Oaxaca, MX, mural painting and clay bas-reliefs, 3 x 15 m.

TRANSCAPES, solo show, 2020, Mexico City.

* […] Allan Villavicencio created a pictorial experience that goes through a chro- nicle of an interior landscape, felt from the sight and the body. TRANSCAPES plays with elements from his recent practice, this time in a permanent intervention. The features of the space were addressed from the tension between the two main walls–united by the side tears and the chromatic echoes of the beams that connect them. This is not an immersive tour1; it is the experience of living between two worlds that project each other, two worlds escaping towards opposite cardinal points. The symbols used do not follow a religious order or an ideology. Rather they pick up on the shamanic –not in its intentions, but its ways. The same happens with color. Both things have been activated intuitively, distanced from rational knowledge or color theories. The use of fast-wearing pigments (fluorescence) should be noted as well as the tension it creates with the concept of durability in a medium that aspires towar- ds stability. To tackle it, Villavicencio left instructions to periodically repaint specific strokes. This way, the concept of permanence can be understood as the acceptance of transitions and renovation. This is how the project connects to the house (more so than through the appropriation of its surfaces), which is a restoration project2. […]

Andrea Bustillos Duhart & Alvaro Castillo, February 2020.

*Excerpt ot the exhibition text. 1 As in the case of his recent solo show La recherche du rayon vert (In Search of the Green Ray) at Maëlle Galerie, Paris, 2019. 2 The house was restored by architect Juan Urquiaga. TRANSCAPES, installation view, 2020, Mexico City, 2 of 4 x 5 m each. Images: Octavio Rivadeynera.

Pétalos del Asfalto (Asphalt petals), solo show, 2019, IK Projects, Lima.

* […] The color-matter structures the pictorial skins that constitute Villavicencio's work. We can conceive pictorial skin as the conjunc- tion of the matter-color, of the time and the space in each layer of his paintings. But it is not only about the qualities of each skin, rather about what happens between one and the other. One layer simultaneously denies and supports the other, and even many times they are contradictory. The skin is a surface that conceal, but at the same time it points to something else.

Othiana Roffiel

*Excerpt ot the exhibition text.

Pétalos en azul 2019 oil, oil stick, acrylic, spray on canvas 200 x 170 cm Pétalos del asfalto, exhibition view, 2019, IK Projects, Lima. Smoothie, 2019, oil, oil stick, spray on canvas, 170 x 420 cm. Images : Pablo Cruz Pétalos del asfalto, exhibition view, 2019, IK Projects, Lima. Ebullición, group show, 2019, Kunstraum am Schauplatz, Vienna.

Allan Villavicencio, Sofia Cruz, Christian Camacho, Lucia Vidales, Juan Calo- ca, Madeline Jimenez Santil, Jose Eduardo Barajas, Prras! Collective, Sangree, Karla Kaplun, Matias Solar, Victoire Barbot, Maximiliano León, Ana Sego- via, NAAFI, Lilly Pfalzer, Andrew Birk, Alma Saladin & Marco Rountree, Pablo Cendejas, Daniel Hüttler, Andy Medina, Angelika Loderer, Isreal Urmeer, Palo- ma Contreras Lomas, Daniel Aguilar Ruvalcaba. That which is composed of constituents to form a unified whole, not in the manner of a heap, but as a syllable, is evidently more than the sum of its constituents. A syllable is not the sum of their sounds; ba is not the same as b plus a [...] So the syllable is something for itself; it’s not just her lute, but so- mething else.

Aristotle: Metaphysics 1

In the last few years Mexico City has experienced an internationally acclai- med boom as a result of a multi-faceted net of factors. Balancing a delicate equilibrium of safety for outsiders, and a violently corrupt reality, the mega city is on its way of becoming a world capital for culture and tourism, mir- roring successful capitalist models but – literally – built on shaky ground.

Integrating the affluence and influence of internationalism through the waves of artists and young professionals floating in and out of Mexico as one very specific type of global tourism, the creative sce- ne in the city looks very different now than it did in the 90s. The ques- tion is, how does a particular idiosyncrasy survive processes of exoticiza- tion in the market of identities, while thriving in a world of new demands?

Organized by Maximiliano León, Andrew Birk and Lukas Will- mann, Ebullición presents the work of twenty-six artists based in or associated with Mexico City for the first time in Vienna. *[…]

Sira Pizà Pulpo 2019 oil, oil stick, acrylic, spray on canvas 1 Translated into German by Adolf Lasson, Jena 1907, p. 129 170 x 140 cm *Excerpt ot the exhibition text, full version Ebullición, 2019, Kunstraum am Schauplatz, Vienna, exhibition view. Ebullición, 2019, Kunstraum am Schauplatz, Vienna, exhibition view with Prras! Collective, Ana Segovia, Lucia Vidales and Madeline Jimenez Santil pieces. La recherche du rayon vert, solo show, 2019, Maëlle Galerie, Paris.

[...]* In this exhibition, Allan Villavicencio assembles a new series of works, in a configuration especially designed for the gallery space and in affinity with this optical manifestation. Here, he continues his experimentation with painting as perception: visual perception, sensible or material perception, and physical perception. For him, painting is an accumulation of matter and sensations. His practice oscillates between a formal relation to a pictorial object, and a gestural and intuitive process that includes the traces and hazards of chance.

Anaïs Lepage, curator.

*Excerpt ot the exhibition text, full version here. La recherche du rayon vert, exhibition view, 2019, Maëlle Galerie, Paris. Images: Jerome Michel Mural painting with egg tempera, La recherche du rayon vert, exhibition view, 2019, Maëlle Galerie, Paris. La recherche du rayon vert, exhibition view, 2019, Maëlle Galerie, Paris. XVIII Rufino Tamayo Painting Biennial,group show, 2018-2019, Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Oaxaca, Oaxaca & Museo Tamayo, Mexico City, MX.

The Rufino Tamayo Painting Biennial is an event with which the Oaxacan painter promoted a permanent reflection on the cur- rent state of the pictorial exercise at a national level and the creation of a collection of contemporary painting for the state of Oaxaca. The Biennial is convened by the Ministry of Culture through the National Institute of Fine Arts, the Olga and Rufino Tamayo Foundation and the Ministry of Culture of the State of Oaxaca.

The exhibition of the works selected in this 18th edition arrives at the Museo Tamayo, its last venue, after having been presented in various institutions during a year-long tour. After its exhibition to the public of the capital, the sample will be dispersed and the 3 winning works will be delivered to the Secretariat of Cultures of the State of Oaxaca to initiate another cycle with the launching of the Call for the XIX edition.

For this edition, the awarded artists are: Silvia Mayoral Molina, Cisco Jiménez and Luis Hampshire. In addition to the winners, the merit of four artists was recognized with honorable men- tions awarded to Allan Villavicencio, Angela Leyva, Catalina Gris, and Cristo Contel.

Ripped Spaces III 2018 oil, oil stick, acrylic, spray on canvas 200 x 170 cm

XVIII Rufino Tamayo Painting Biennial, 2019, exhibition view, Museo Tamayo, Mexico City. XVIII Rufino Tamayo Painting Biennial, 2019, exhibition view, Museo Tamayo, Mexico City. Notes for a landscape, solo show, 2018, Lima.

Notes for a landscape is an exhibition consisting in a new series of pieces which refer to the micro-landscape, the miniature spaces which are often difficult for us to perceive.

Just as a puddle of water shows the “infra levedad” of the urban environment by functioning like a mirror, these pieces reflect the horizontality of the landscape and re- cords the actions of a body in movement. The main pie- ce in the room, made of raw canvas and composed of 6 paintings of equal size, creates a dialogue with the view of the city of Lima, which shows the large window of the building located in Miraflores. The fissures, the grooves, the traces and the ephemeral features of the city beco- me some elements transferred to the pictorial surface.

Allan Villavicencio

Fifth piece of the polyptic Notes for a landscape 2018 oil, acrylic, spray, lacquer on raw canvas 180 x 150 cm Notes for a landscape, 2018, oil, acrylic, spray, lacquer on raw canvas, 6 pieces of 180 x 150 cm each Notes for a landscape, 2018, oil, acrylic, spray, lacquer on raw canvas, 6 pieces of 180 x 150 cm each Despliegues (Deployments), solo show, 2018, Pre Zona Maco Vip Program, CRGS UDEM University, Monterrey, MX.

* [...]When we look at the other side of the curtain, sometimes we are disappointed to discover that the public isn’t paying attention. We feel a presence, but when our gaze reaches the other side, nothing is there. However, the vacuum does not really exist; it is merely a perception within the materiality itself, co-existing in the same continuous reality.

So what do we make of this “emptiness” that lurks behind the elements that surround us? Could it be an image that has sped up to compress itself and lost its appearance, becoming a ghost?

The paintings of Allan Villavicencio have that mysterious quality of showing what’s hidden, of revealing the impalpable. With subtle articulations of layers and reflections, his work for Despliegues brings us toward the root of the mental and visual effects that pictorial matter have on our eve- ryday lives. His gestures are not limited by the border of the canvas, but instead they seek expansion, exploring the possibilities of the painterly act. In this way, the work is sa- turated with the life of its author, who engages directly with his environment.[...]

Aurélie Vandewynckele

*Excerpt ot the exhibition text, full version here.

le rideau II 2017 lacquer, acrylic, spray on canvas 290 x 250 cm Despliegues, exhibition view, 2018, Pre Zona Maco Vip Program, CRGS UDEM University, Monterrey, MX. Despliegues, exhibition view, 2018, Pre Zona Maco Vip Program, CRGS UDEM University, Monterrey, MX. Construir una grieta (Building a split), 2017, Galería Libertad, Queretaro, MX. Construir una grieta (Building a split), 2017, Galería Libertad, Queretaro, MX. Un vacio edificado (A built void), solo show, 2016, Luis Adelantado, Mexico City, MX.

Painting can be thought of as an image and also as a material ac- cumulation of pictorial gestures that build up and underpin what we see on the surface. When we see a painting, what do we really see? Just an image, or an overlay of layers canceled out by the visible plane? In terms of vision, we can accept that we only have the sur- viving image left to see and we have to accept the destruction of so many abandoned in the process. When we look at an image, what are we not seeing?

Allan Villavicencio takes these questions into account in order to think of the painting as a construction of signs that delimit a visual field. This field is paradoxical: it shows at the same time that it hides, and whichever question is directed at the interior of the frame projects an outward echo. «The tension is in the edges,” engineers always say. With these ideas in mind, this project shifts the question of where a painting begins and ends toward a broader issue of space pro- duction that involves exploring how certain spaces in the city are delimited. In this way, Villavicencio’s paintings shift the strategies of delimitation to the interior of the painting in correlation to many of the strategies of demarcation in urban space.

Roselín Rodriguez Espinoza, curator.

*Excerpt ot the exhibition text, full version here.

Edificaciones 2016 acrylic and spray on canvas 170 x 140 cm Un vacio edificado,exhibition view, 2016, Luis Adelantado, Mexico City, MX. SELECTED WORKS 2018 - 2021 Untitled (frutero) 2021 oil and acrylic on sewed linen 60 x 50 cm Freshcut 2020-21 oil and oil stick linen 120 x 90 cm Hoja Santa 2020 clay & pigment bas-relief 100 x 100 cm Untitled 2020 clay and pigments 70 x 65 x 40 cm Hoyo 2020 oil, oil stick, acrylic on sewed linen 35 x 30 cm Desert Sneak 2020 oil & acrylic on linen 170 x 140 cm Image: Fernando Etulain Fish eye 2019 oil, oil stick, lacquer, acrylic, spray on canvas Image: Fernando Etulain 200 x 400 cm cascada 2019 oil, oil stick, lacquer, acrylic, spray on canvas 240 x 210 cm window pane 2018 oil, oil stick, acrylic, spray on cotton and linen 236 x 227 cm Exhibition view, Nueva piel para una vieja ceremonia, 2019, Galeria Karen Huber. 20 pieces of 50 x 40 cm each Still life with papers 2018 oil, oil stick, acrylic, spray on canvas 170 x 140 cm Le Rideau IV & Le Rideau V 2018 Exhibition view in FUEGO cdmx, Mexico City, 2018. lacquer, acrylic, spray on canvas Image: PJ Rountree 240 x 210 cm ALLAN VILLAVICENCIO 2017 (Mexico City, Mexico, 1987) Landscape Biennial, Contemporary Art Museum of Sonora (Sonora, Mexico) Lives and works in Mexico City, Mexico. El placer de la incertidumbre, Cultural House San Rafael (Mexico City, Mexico) WHY WHY WHY!, Isabel la Católica 231 (Mexico City, Mexico) SOLO & DUO SHOWS 2021 2016 Solo show, Galería Karen Huber (Mexico City, Mexico) - upcoming Tropismes, curated by heiwata, Cité des Arts (Paris, France) Incitatus, Celda Contemporánea, University of Claustro of Sor Juana (Mexico City, Mexico) 2020 Capital flight, Chalton gallery (London, UK) TRANSCAPES, large scale fresco mural (Mexico City, Mexico) Le rhinocéros est mort, Rotolux (Paris, France)

2019 2015 Pétalos del asfalto, IK Projects (Lima, Peru) Salad Days, Casa Lamm Gallery (Mexico City, Mexico) Un pájaro roba dinero, w/ Cristóbal Gracia, LADRÓNgalería (Mexico City, Mexico) Ergos Panoptes, curated by Marco Arce, Parque Fundidora, (Monterrey, Mexico) La recherche du rayon vert, curated by Anaïs Lepage, Maëlle Galerie (Paris, France) Zona 6, Galería Luis Adelantado (Mexico City, Mexico) Campo inestable, Centro cultural border (Mexico City, Mexico) 2018 Ciudad obstrucción, Galeria FAD UNAM (Mexico City, Mexico) VIBRAS, Galería Luis Adelantado (Mexico City, Mexico) Artificios de disuación, Galeria ENPEG “La Esmeralda” (Mexico City, Mexico) Notes for a landscape, IK Projects (Lima, Peru) Despliegues, Pre ZONA MACO, CRGS, UDEM (Monterrey, Mexico) 2014 Ergos Panoptes, curated by Marco Arce, Museo Carrillo Gil (Mexico City, Mexico) 2017 Bienal Rufino Tamayo, Museo Tamayo (Mexico City, Mexico) Recent paintings, ARTBO, Galería Luis Adelantado (Bogotá, Colombia) Bienal Nacional Nómada de Veracruz, Museo Regional de Querétaro (Querétaro, Mexico) Construir una grieta, Galería Libertad (Querétaro, Mexico) XXXIV Encuentro nacional de Arte Joven, Museo Regional Aguascalientes (Aguascalientes, Mexico)

2016 FAIRS Un vacío edificado, curated by Roselin Rodríguez Espinosa, Galería Luis Adelantado (Mexico City, MX) 2021 Zona MACO, Galería Karen Huber (Mexico City, Mexico) SELECTED GROUP SHOWS 2020 2020 Zona MACO, Galería Karen Huber (Mexico City, Mexico) don’t get 2 close 2 my fantasy, Galería Karen Huber (Mexico City, Mexico) Zona MACO, IK Projects (Mexico City, Mexico) 5ta Bienal José Atanasio Monroy, Universidad de Guadalajara (Guadalajara, Mexico) 2019 Material Art fair, IK Projects (Mexico City, Mexico) 2019 2018 Nueva piel para una vieja ceremonia, Galería Karen Huber (Mexico City, Mexico) UNTITLED Miami, Maëlle Galerie (Miami, USA) S U E Ñ O S, Espacio Unión (Mexico City, Mexico) Zona MACO, Maëlle Galerie (Mexico City, Mexico) El jardín de Galileo, Guadalajara90210 (Mexico City, Mexico) Zona MACO, Galería Luis Adelantado (Mexico City, Mexico) Ebullición, curated by Maximiliano León, Kunstraum am Schauplatz (Vienna, Austria) 2017 Les Saturnales, Part 2: SOLARIS, curated by Julia Borderie (Paris, France) ARTBO, Galería Luis Adelantado (Bogota, Colombia) Lapin-canard, Parc de la Villette (Paris, France) Zona MACO, Galería Luis Adelantado (Mexico City, Mexico) Encuentro de Arte Contemporáneo, cur. by Alberto Rios de la Rosa (Oaxaca, Mexico) 2016 Biennal (Michoacán, Mexico) ARCO, Galería Luis Adelantado (Madrid, )

2018 RESIDENCIES XVIII Rufino Tamayo Biennial, Museo Tamayo (Mexico City) & Museo de Arte Contemporáneo (Oaxaca, MX) Casa Wabi (Puerto Escondido, Mexico, 2020) México: Pintura Reactiva, curated by Carlos Palacios, Museo Carrillo Gil (Mexico City, Mexico) Cité des Arts (Paris, France, 2019) Creating movement, National Young Creators 17-18, FONCA (Oaxaca, Mexico) Espacio Tomado (Lima, Peru, 2018) FUEGO, FuegoCdmx (Mexico City, Mexico) Permanente (Bogota, Colombia, 2017) GRANTS & AWARDS 2018 Honorary distinction, XVIII Rufino Tamayo Biennial (Oaxaca, Mexico) “Jóvenes Creadores”, National Fund of the Arts-FONCA (Mexico) 2016 Honorary distinction, II Landscape Biennial (Sonora, Mexico) 2015 Residencies Program Zona 6, Luis Adelantado Gallery (Mexico City, Mexico) 2014 First Prize, XXXIV National Competition of Young Art (Aguascalientes, Mexico)

FEATURED COLLECTIONS Mario Testino - MUSEO MATE (Lima, Peru) Colección Arena (Madrid, Spain) JM SR Collection (Querétero, Mexico) Museum of Contemporary Art Aguascalientes (Aguascalientes, Mexico)

PUBLICATIONS ONDA MX, “Entrevista a Allan Villavicencio sobre los murales Transcapes”, Fabiola Talavera, Feb 2020. Animal, “10 years, anniversary edition”, 2019. La Razón, “La nueva pintura mexicana”, Alicia Quiñones, 2019. Terremoto, “PArC + Art week 2018 in Lima, Peru”, Dorothée Dupuis,2018. Crash magazine, “Painting is burning. A new generation of painters”, Dorothée Dupuis, 2017. La tempestad, “Un vacío edificado”, Oscar Benasini, 2017. Crónica, “Variaciones chilangas”, Eduardo Egea, 2016. Terremoto, “Painting is Not an Autistic Activity”, Sandra Sánchez, 2016. Opinión Gas TV, “Artificios de disuasión: el artista como narrador”, Sandra Sánchez, 2016. “Our Own Worst Enemy”, Jorge Gómez del Campo, 2015. El Universal, “Pintura plural y emergente en la bienal Rufino Tamayo”, Gerardo Martínez, 2015. April 2021

Inquiries: [email protected]