黑料不打烊

Alexander Gray Associates presents its first exhibition of works by Teresa Burga. A pioneering figure in Latin American Conceptualism, since the 1960s Burga has made works that encompass drawing, painting, sculpture, and conceptual structures that support the display of analytical data and experimental methodologies. The exhibition features a selection of historic illustrations and recent drawings, as well as never-before realized large-scale sculptures and a new wall drawing, based on schematics Burga created in the 1970s.

Spotlighting key moments of Burga鈥檚 diverse conceptual practice, the exhibition includes historical drawings from the series M谩quinas in煤tiles (Inutile Machines), including Florero (Vase) (1974) and L谩mpara (Lamp) (1974). In these conceptual proposals, Burga outlines detailed measurements and schematics for the three-dimensional production of sculptural objects that betray their own function, rendering them 鈥渦seless.鈥� In Florero, Burga envisions a geometric vase as a porous vessel, unable to retain hypothetical water to support the life of the flowers it contains. L谩mpara, similarly, is designed as an ornate lamp that cannot hold a bulb, thus producing no light. Developed in the mid-1970s, as Burga examined societal structures and their gaps in logic, the M谩quinas in煤tiles series considers how utility determines value.

Anchoring the exhibition is a large-scale wall drawing from Burga鈥檚 Insomnia Drawings, one of the few series she continued to develop while working in Peru鈥檚 General Customs Office. Produced over the course of thirty years when Burga suffered from sleeplessness, the Insomnia Drawings are composed of hypnotic lines and geometric patterns, which read as gestural, automatic, and spontaneously informed by chance. Manipulating spatial proportions to create optical illusions, each Insomnia Drawing suggests vertiginous movement. Serving as technical sketches for large-scale wall drawings, the series destabilizes the notion of ubiquitous and singular authorship. Like many of Burga鈥檚 radical conceptual works, they can be reproduced by various authors and in various contexts.