AZUL, EL CIELO.
8/12-9/23 2021
Opening Reception: 8/12 6-9pm
Cleo the Gallery is pleased to present Azul, el cielo., our newest exhibition curated by Gonzalo Hernandez with work by Carolina Casusol, Ingrid Pumayalla, and Leia Genis. This show centers around the fascination in art with capturing the immensity of feeling attached to the color that coats the sky.
Guest curator Gonzalo Hernandez hails from Lima, Perú, a city soaked so consistently in grey skies so as to be known as ‘Lima la gris’. The shock of moving to the southern United States, where the blue of the sky holds steady throughout the seasons, propelled him to create a show for Cleo in celebration of this scene. Through the eyes of three artists immersed in interpreting the color, Hernandez places this exhibition amongst the backdrop of other artists, historians, and poets who have filled their life’s work with exploring the supernatural traits of ‘sky blue’.
Carolina Casusol’s installation is a composite of photographs featuring this color culled from different scenes. She uses the trope of sky as a sign of hope in its limitlessness. In her patchwork there presents a new vision from fragmented memory that takes on the possibility of endless reinterpretations.
In the cyanotypes of Leia Genis blue is used to give weight to forms imprinted on the fabric. These forms flatten the image of the human body to play with representation devoid of any other signifiers. With the placement of these works in the windows of the gallery it not only shrouds the space in shadows but uses light from the outside to further distort the figures so as to question our own semiology. In this same movement, the blue light cast in the gallery aims to invite the sky in, breaking down boundaries between interior and exterior.
Blue is also found in the color of the sweater used in Ingrid Pumayalla’s work. Her sweater, photograph, and sound piece serve as remnants to a performance she completed in the woods. It is a performance in which there is a push and pull towards nature as she attempts to interrupt the ripples of sound in the forest but borrow the color blue for her wardrobe to bring the sky into her ritual.
Gonzalo Hernandez (b. Lima, Perú) recieved an MFA from Savannah College of Art and Design. He lives and works in Miami, FL.
gonzalo-hernandez.com / @hernandezgonzalo
Carolina Casusol (b. Lima, Perú) received an MFA from Tulane University. She lives and works in Miami, FL.
carolinacasusol.com / @carocass
Leia Genis (b. Chicago, IL) received an BFA in Painting and Sculpture from Savannah College of Art and Design. She lives and works in Atlanta, GA.
leiagenis.com / @leiagenis
Ingrid Pumayalla (b. Trujillo, Perú) received an MA from Central Saint Martins School of Arts and Design. She lives and works in Lima, Perú.
ingridpumayalla.com / @ingridjosefa
*Thank you to our sponsors Alexandra Hemrick and Melanie McCune + our handyman Zach Cox !*
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Photos by Jacob Edenfield
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