Alexandre Arrechea:
Intersected Horizons

September 10, 2023 - July 28, 2024

Alexandre Arrechea: Intersected Horizons

By Gabriela Urtiaga, MOLAA Chief Curator

The Museum of Latin American Art is pleased to present Alexandre Arrechea: Intersected Horizons, the first solo museum show in California that explores the artistic practices of the well-known and multidisciplinary artist Alexandre Arrechea (1970). A contemporary Afro-Cuban artist based between Spain and the USA for more than two decades and the former co-founder of the Los Carpinteros collective (from 1999 to 2003).

In this exhibit, Arrechea’s method of transgressing the limits of traditional artifacts and materials as a point of examination is redefined as a social and political exploration that melds art, history, and archaeological forms.

His work, including paintings, installations, sculptures, photographs, and video art, introduces us to crucial questions about individual and collective memories and public and private experiences. Pushing the boundaries and enriching the language of art with a solid commitment to his time, Alexandre Arrechea addresses topics including culture, identity, and representation, from his native Trinidad, his early adulthood in Havana, to the last decades of living and working around the world.

This exhibition is significant because it approaches the creative process of this multidisciplinary artist. We experience his unique vision and transformation of daily objects and materials as he investigates the relationship between objects, architecture, materiality, and the human body. His juxtaposition of messages and concepts, which subverts typical conceptual and physical interpretations, is presented as an immersive experience where boundaries between eras are blurred, and the artist’s thinking is shown as a cohesive whole, with pauses and reflections of his daily experiences as an individual but also as part of the community.

It will introduce us to his ideas about the social implications of his hybrid objects, which expose the process and rebirth of art-making material between the creation and the representation of different elements with open meanings.

This project includes various works spanning his long career and creates dialogues with new works that address contemporary questions. All are linked with historical references and traditions from Cuba, his country of origin, which has always been a nexus of culture, history, and international thought. The show also examines artworks that challenge preconceived categories in the contemporary scene, with a theoretical framework of erasing the boundaries between painting, sculptures, installation, and the viewers, making Alexandre Arrechea: Intersected Horizons an experience in experimental practice.

Biography

Alexandre Arrechea’s work comprises large-scale installations, sculptures, watercolor drawings, and videos that debate such issues as history, memory, politics, and the power relations of the urban space. Arrechea’s mode of working site-specifically makes him explore the ideological and philosophical legacy of the surrounding context to create a more engaging interaction with the audience. His exploration of space contemplates cultural resonances implicit in architecture, from design to social value, and how these condition its multiple readings. This approach to dissecting architectural anatomies and spaces through drawings and installations explores the possibility of multiple conflicts embedded in architecture as result of the many decisions “hidden” in their structures. He is internationally renowned as one of the founding members of the Cuban collective, Los Carpinteros [The Carpenters], active between 1991 and 2003. Embarking on his solo career in the same year, Arrechea is widely recognized for Nolimits (2013), a monumental project composed of ten sculptures inspired by iconic buildings in New York City and erected along Park Avenue, and Katrina Chairs (2016), erected at the Coachella Music Festival, Palm Springs, California, USA. In 2020 at the peak of the pandemic, he created Dreaming with Lions, an immersive rotunda resembling an enormous forum-cum-library installed at Faena Miami Beach. The commission Dreaming with Lions embodies our ability to withstand relentless and enormous challenges and persist, even in the face of defeat. His latest project in 2022 curated by Elsa Mora at Artyard is Landscape and Hierarchies. This exhibition explores the responsibility that lies between the individual and the collective and the ripple effects human actions have on society and nature.

Arrechea received a BFA, from Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA) in 1994 (Havana, Cuba. He has had individual exhibitions at institutions such as Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (MNBA) in Havana, Cuba, PS1 Contemporary Art Center in New York, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) in Los Angeles, and the New Museum in New York, among many others. His work can be found at collections such as Museo Centro de Arte Contemporáneo Reina Sofia, Spain; Museum of Modern Art, NY, USA; Brooklyn Museum, NY, USA; Mudam, Luxemburg. Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst. Aachen, Germany; Daros Collection. Zurich, Switzerland.

Sponsors:

Gay & Tim Degani

Galería Nara Roesler

Rosa Lowinger and Todd Kessler