ESCULTURA SOCIAL:
A NEW GENERATION OF ART FROM MEXICO CITY
23 June - 2 September 2007
A catalogue accompanies the exhibition www.mcachicago.org

fig.: Dr. Lakra, Untitled (sillón rojo), 2004. Ink on vintage magazine 13 1/4 x 9 7/8 ; in. (33.5 x 25 cm). The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, purchased with funds provided by the Buddy Taub Foundation, Jill and Dennis Roach, Directors
Dr. Lakra, born 1972, lives and works in Mexico City, is a tattoo artist who transforms idealized figures and advertisements from 1950’s Mexican magazines, pin-up girls and wrestlers, by “tattooing” them with ink snakes, demons, spiders, and the faces of pouting vixens. His graffiti-like defacements politicize the relative innocence of images of a romanticized past, combining a kitschy erotica with elements of ancient ritual and hallucinogenic visions in his collages.

The democratic idea of artmaking The exhibition presents a New Generation of Art from Mexico City. The theme bases on German performance artist Joseph Beuys’s idea of social sculpture, which is translated into the Spanish as escultura social. "The works are all socially engaged; they draw connections between people, animals and nature; they revisit conceptual practices/actions from the 1960s; and promote a demystified and democratic idea of artmaking. In addition, the meaning of the images, objects, and actions are at the crux of these artists’ works and the exhibition provides an opportunity to showcase their recent developments." MCA Assistant Curator Julie Rodrigues Widholm. next>>>