Guillermo Garcia Cruz
Bio/CV: Guillermo García Cruz (1988, Montevideo, Uruguay). Professor of Visual Arts by IPA, Montevideo, Uruguay. He has been part of Washington Studio School and Corcoran School of the Arts and Design, Washington, USA. His work has been presented at group and solo exhibitions in Montevideo, Sao Paulo, Lima, Buenos Aires, Mexico, Miami, Washington DC, New York, Madrid, Barcelona, Timisioara, Lisbon and Tianjin. Among other articles and mentions, in 2019 he has been highlighted globally among the 12 artists in the focus of the next generation, by the Ibero-American site Arte Informado. He currently lives and works in the city of Dubai, UAE, developing an interdisciplinary body of work, made of painting, photography, action and installation, exploring a contemporary approach to the geometric question and the different conceptual interpretations that stem from its formal disruption.
Artist Statement: My work is composed by a series of paintings and sculptures that play with the formal legacy left by Latin American concretism, through Lygia Clark and her paintings from the Planos em Superfície Modulada series, as well as through the production of the movement Uruguayan-Argentine MADI from the 1940s. According to the MADI artists, painting should not be conditioned by the rectangular canvas. On the contrary, the shape of the canvas should follow the structure of the painting.
In my work I offer a formal rapprochement with the constructivist heritage, whilst proposing an attempted rupture that occurs in the very structure of the work. This collapse that occurs within the object is most evident in my glitched works – the paintings and sculptures are always on the verge of separating, multiplying elsewhere, seeking a life of their own by fragmenting their body-structure into contextual space. Historically, we can relate this act of rupture with a reflection on the project of modernity and its collapse in Latin American contexts, as well as on our current moment of global changes where we feel disoriented and anxious about what is about to happen.
I attempt to disorient the viewer’s perception in relation to the plane of the work and produce an effect of noise, like a temporary error or a “glitch” – a term common in the computer context. Repetition, movement, transformation, the limits between interior and exterior are some of the visible concerns in my production, in addition to the pictorial work itself, which may contain apparently opposite elements on its surface such as brightness and opacity, texture and flatness and that are not antagonistic, but rather share the same terrain and interest.
Selected Solo Exhibitions: 2023 Screen I, KATES-FERRI PROJECTS, NYC 2022 Glitched Space VII, Galeria Zielinski. Barcelona, Spain Glitched Space VI, Galeria Impakto. Lima, Peru 2021 Glitched Space V. Galería del Paseo. Uruguay Glitched Space II. Barranguet Arts. Connecticut 2020 UNTITLED SPACE V. Recoleto Creative. Javea, España Alchemy. LKG - Core Club. NYC Room 45, Programa Taide. Madrid, España 2019 UNTITLED SPACE IV, Fundación Iturria. Montevideo, Uruguay UNTITLED SPACE III, Galería Juan Risso. Madrid, España Evidence, Espacio de Arte Contemporáneo. Montevideo, Uruguay 2016 Still Them, Espacio de Arte Contemporáneo, Montevideo, Uruguay 2014 Talking Black. Sofitel Casino Carrasco. Montevideo, Uruguay Garcia Cruz, Interamerican Development Bank. Washington 2013 Conventional. Embassy of Uruguay. Montevideo, Uruguay 2012 Inmanente. Diana Saravia Gallery. Montevideo, Uruguay
Selected Group Exhibitions: 2023 Abstraccion en Movimiento. Museo de Arte Contemporaneo Atchugarry, Uruguay Contrast of Forms, Zielinsky Gallery, Barcelona Brillantes Uruguayos, Galeria del Paseo, Uruguay ArtNow curated by Betty Levin, HEARST Tower, NYC On/Off the grid, Jecza Gallery, Rumania 2022 In Praise of Shadows, Galeria Zielinzky, Barcelona 2021 Taller Transversal, Mexico City Geometria Austral, Galería del Paseo, Punta del Este, Uruguay 2020 Dúo 1/5. Galería Nueva. Madrid, España 2019 Tensiones del paisaje, Centro de exposiciones SUBTE Municipal. Montevideo, Uruguay Proyecto Evidencia. Espacio de Arte Contemporáneo. Montevideo, Uruguay Premio Paul Cezanne, Final Selection, EAC. Montevideo, Uruguay 2017 Uruguay Contemporary Art. Tianjin Art Academy. China 2016 Temporada 22, Espacio de Arte Contemporáneo. Montevideo, Uruguay Seres, Centro Cultural de México. Montevideo, Uruguay Premio Paul Cezane. EAC. Montevideo, Uruguay 2015 “Rizzo, Foglino, Garcia Cruz”. Diana Saravia Gallery. Montevideo, Uruguay Invadir sin conquistar. Performance with Santi Senso. CCE. Montevideo Uruguay Retrato Contemporáneo. Subte. Montevideo, Uruguay Opening Marte Galería de Arte. Montevideo, Uruguay 2013 Arte 58, Torre 58. Montevideo, Uruguay Revolutum, Harlem School of Arts. New York Fernandez, Barranguet, Garcia Cruz, Dejavu Art. New York Arty Nights, BG MOCA International. Portezuelo, Uruguay 2012 Pink Spring. World Trade Center. Montevideo, Uruguay Arte en Demolición II. Montevideo, Uruguay Marte invita. Marte Centro Cultural. Montevideo, Uruguay 2011 Arte en demolición. Montevideo, Uruguay
Residencies: 2023 D+C Foundation Residency, Miami Florida 2021 JOHS Residency, Mexico City, Mexico Taco, Talleres de Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City, Mexico Barranguet Arts Residency, Connecticut, USA 2020 Recoleto Creative, Javea, Spain Cerro Gallinero, Land Art Museum, Avila, Spain Atelier Solar, Madrid, Spain
Collections: Cisneros Fontanalls, Cruz Diez Family Collection, The Hearst Collection, D+C Collection, Northwestern University Collection, Luis Bassat Collection, Jorge M. Pérez Collection, George and Linda Kelly Collection, Alberto Rebasa Collection, DiGood Collection, Carlos Manzano Collection, La Escalera Collection, Recoleto Colllection, David Segarra collection, Prince Dushan of Serbia collection, Cerro Gallinero Centro de Arte y Naturaleza (Land Art Museum)
Social: @guillegarciacruz