Guerra de la Paz
GUERRA DE LA PAZ
Monumental Installations at CVC Project Space
{{gallery}}CVC Project space features a monumental installation by Guerra de la Paz, the Miami based artist team Alain Guerra and Neraldo de la Paz.
The large scale, vibrantly colored sculptures in the exhibition are made from materials that are part of our everyday lives – mass market apparel – to which the artists give new life and meaning.
The interactive exhibition invites visitors to walk through an installation of larger than life figures that come together to revel in our multicultural community, and to figuratively find gold under a huge multicolored rainbow made from recycled clothing. “Follow the Leader” is a spectacular new work that snakes through the gallery beckoning viewer participation. It is comprised of over 100 headless life sized figures and comments on the culture of trends and the repeated behavior of blindly jumping on the bandwagon. The monochromatic vortex of multi textured “Asencion” is an ominous foil and counterpoint to the vibrant hues that surround it. Its subtle gradations from deep velvet black to shimmering white remind us that we can approach what we see and do from widely different viewpoints.
Alain Guerra and Neraldo de la Paz’ installation challenges us to use our senses and imagination to find common ground both in the surprising and wonderful works on display, and in the diversity of every day life.[/vc_column_text]
Guerra de la Paz Press Release
Sculpture Installation by Guerra de la Paz
Guerra de la Paz
Alain Guerra and Neraldo de la Paz are both Cuban born artists who were art schooled in the Chicago area; de la Paz at Northern Illinois University and Guerra at the school of the Art Institute of Chicago. They met in Chicago in the mid 1990’s, and shortly thereafter moved to Miami, where they still live and work. The two artists began making sculpture and installations incorporating found objects shortly after they moved into their Miami studio. At this point they started to gather random articles of discarted clothing for their installations.
Follow the Leader, Guerra de la Paz have constructed a sinuous line of parading figures, a kind of human centipede, if you will, draped in all manner of retrieved apparel. The line of figures snakes its way around and through the main port of the Grand Center gallery space, culminating in a very large pile of stacked clothing near the reception desk. The affect is as if the wearers of that clothing are disappearing into that pile. No portions of bodies are visible in the construction, but the separate figures are articulated by means of multiple armatures clad in pants and shoes. The clothing employed in Follow the Leader tends toward the flamboyant and colorful, including such elements as leopard skin, paisley, rosettes, superhero pj’s, plaids, stripes, spots, little smiling monkeys, potery, slogans, numerals, and even gold spiderweb design on a muslin cape. Guerra de la Paz wanted only patterned clothing for this project, which means that the preponderance of visible garments are women’s or children’s wear.
The work of Guerra de la Paz, the two artist team of Alain Guerra and Neraldo de la Paz, is based on a combination of traditional disciplines and experimentation with dimension and the use of unconventional materials. It is inspirited by an essential familiarity with the ready-made and the archeological qualities that found objects posses. The result encapsulates an energy that reveals underlying meanings and depicts the significance of mass-produced refuse on our society.
Relying exclusively on materials that part of our everyday lives, they create work with a universal message. Using recycled objects as their medium and the guidance of the unrelenting amounts of information that fuel today’s mass consciousness and its subversive parallels, Guerra de la Paz explores ways to reinvent historic themes and classic icons while commenting on contemporary culture. The artists were just awarded a public commission by the New York Transit Authority for a site specific installation at the Williamsburg bridge.