The Armory Show / New York City | Liliana Porter

March 7—10, 2019

Liliana Porter
The Armory Show 2019
Pier 90
BOOTH F18

Carrie Secrist Gallery is pleased to present a selection of artwork by Liliana Porter at The Armory Show 2019. On view will be a special selection of artwork spanning the years 1973 to 2019. Our booth is a part of the 2019 Focus section curated by Lauren Haynes, which ‘seeks to explore identity through figuration of both real and imagined forms’.

Born in Argentina in 1941, Porter is a member of a pioneering wave of Latinx artists who have mined identity socio-politics using then-new strands of contemporary art making to forge engaging methods of aesthetic engagement. Currently being recognized for her contribution to art history, Porter has recently been highlighted in notable exhibitions including: a career spanning survey at the Museo Tamayo de Arte Contemporáneo (2009), inclusion in the 57th Venice Biennale (2017) and Radical Women: Latin American Art, 1960–1985 (2018).

Carrie Secrist Gallery’s booth in New York City will showcase highlights from Liliana Porter’s celebrated and dedicated artistic career of giving voice to the Everyperson. Through the use of self-portraits and found inanimate objects rendered in a variety of media, Porter posits the human condition as fragile and curious, yet full of wonder. Activated by the viewer, these characters are cast in vignettes that theatricalize the trials and tribulations of society depicted through an almost incomprehensible range of human emotion.

On view will be a selection of Porter’s well known object-based works in a variety of mediums including photography, drawing, sculpture and installations. These objects – including a tar-covered Mickey Mouse, broken clocks, plastic soldiers and porcelain figurines – are reanimated with a new purpose. Additionally, a selection of prescient self-portraits from the early 1970’s showcase Porter’s contribution to the conceptually rigorous time in art history where the artist and the idea intertwine.

The artworks on view at The Armory Show make apparent deeper contexts at play, using time and memory as a worldview primed to expose our current societal quandaries. The myriad of narratives that emerge with Porter’s work are initially personal, playing off of nostalgia and mnemonics – but are also dosed with subtle humor and a hint of foreboding. Cumulatively, the relatable perspectives gained from this experience allow the viewer to comprehend what Porter calls “the possibility of meaning” while emphasizing our own infinitesimal role in the grandest scheme of all.