Guillermo García
Guillermo Garcia Cruz was born in Montevideo, Uruguay, and resides in Dubai. His artistic formation included attending the Fundación de Arte Contemporáneo, Montevideo, Uruguay; Advanced Painting at the Washington Studio School and Drawing and Painting in Contemporary Art at Corcoran College of Art, Washington, DC.; and the National School of Fine Arts in Montevideo, Uruguay. In addition, he is a professor of Visual Art at the Instituto de Profesores Artigas in Montevideo, Uruguay.
His work can be found in many collections worldwide, among those Cisneros Fontanals Foundation (CIFO), Northwestern University Collection, Chicago, USA; Luis Bassat Collection, Barcelona, Spain; Jorge M. Pérez Collection, Miami, Florida, USA; Alberto Rebaza Collection, Lima, Perú; and DiGood Collection, Madrid, Spain. His works have been featured in several publications, including a feature by ARTnews during Sao Paulo’s SP-Arte 2023, among the best pieces in the fair.
García Cruz’s work uses a novel approach to replicating how images are perceived. His work looks like it was a computer error or glitch in its pixeled look. He also uses primary software colors in some of his paintings, reinforcing that idea. He says that his “current body of work seeks to question what happens in a variety of fields during this moment of change, when we all feel a little bit disoriented, anxious, or curious about what is about to occur.”
During his residency, García Cruz will develop a project in which he will create a series of works from these ideas.
STATEMENTS
UNTITLED SPACES
At the beginning, Untitled Spaces Project departs of visual experiments that come from real and fictitious structures of exhibition spaces, galleries and museums. These works seek to investigate in different ways the interrelation between the artistic object, represented as an organic pictorial presence, and the artistic institution that contains it, expressed visually as its architectural structure. The contextual space becomes the main theme of this work, looking to question the of validation problem in the current system of contemporary art.
This process begins inside the room through painting and then extends into space, resemantizing construction materials to talk about the wall that becomes the artwork. But then it takes a broader dimension when leaving the exhibition space. Now the work determines new unconventional spaces that contain it, where the piece is taken to the other side of its initial role, to transform the new alternative placement in part of this interaction and to come back to be exhibited as a photograph of this action.
GLITCHED SPACES
The current artwork of Guillermo García Cruz introduces the concept of Glitch to his institutional investigation. Glitch is a term that comes from computer science and refers to a temporary error that is corrected in some moments. In contrast to the bugs, the glitch doesn’t destroy the system, instead, it is temporarily twisted. This temporary twist is assimilated to the global crisis we are experiencing in different ways, an event comparable to the changes of paradigm created by Berlin’s Wall Fall, or the World Wars, being the first time that such a big globalized event hits the millennial generation.
This “failure” affects all aspects of this new way of acting and behaving, and obviously the field of art does not escape this. That is why it is important to ask certain questions about the weight and influence of the institution or structure as a container and validator of what happens in this field, in such a particular context. This investigation has many layers, but in the first place this displacement is metalinguistic, referring to a global disruption that is related to the functioning of the art institution.
The virtual fairs, the 3D tours, the long distance exhibitions, the NFTs, have come to stay?, Or are they part of this glitch that will come back when the “error is corrected in the system”? Actually, we have no idea of how this will affect the way we understand art, to the spaces or to the walls that traditionally validate what is art and what is not, but definitely we know we have been living in the middle of an earthquake.
Extended Statement and investigation interests
My current body of work seeks to question what happens in a variety of fields during this moment of change, when we all feel a little bit disoriented, anxious or curious about what is about to occur. I have been working for several years specifically about the importance of art institutions versus personal expression. So since last year it was impossible to avoid what was happening everywhere outside the studio, even at a personal level. In 2020 I was preparing my most important exhibition at Lima, and suddenly strong restrictions were declared, so I had to cancel it and be rescued by a military airplane sended by the Uruguayan government, because every airport was closed from one day to another in Peru.
This particular experience and the rest of facts we all know made me start seeking a way to express this state of mind into my painting. And made me investigate more about the basis of geometric painting in Latin America. That’s why I started to introduce this ¨glitch¨concept, I wanted to find the most minimal way of talking about all these things, without being literal.
All this investigation got stronger when I went deeper in my roots as an uruguayan artist and discovered the importance of the MADI movement in modern art. They discovered that painting should not necessarily be conditioned by the rectangular canvas, on the contrary, the canvas shape should follow the structure of the painting. With these two facts I found the need to work harder and deeper investigating about how a minimal change can affect the whole structure, working from the pictorial and sculptural field.
Condensed CV
Born: 1988, Montevideo, URUGUAY.
Visual Artist
Director at MAG, Espacio de Arte, Montevideo Uruguay.
Professor at Universidad Catolica del Uruguay (Licenciatura en Artes Visuales)
Selected Group and Solo Exhibitions
2021 – Glitched Space V, Solo Exhibition, Galería del Paseo, Punta del Este, Uruguay
2021 – Open Studio, Impakto Gallery, Lima, Peru
2021 – Barranguet Arts Residency, Solo Exhibition, Connecticut, USA
2021 – Swab Art Fair, Barcelona
2021 – Otra Art Fair, Buenos Aires, Argentina
2020 – Untitled Space V, Recoleto Creative, Solo Exhibition, Valencia
2020 – Alchemy, Solo Exhibition, Latchkey Gallery, NYC.
2020 – ROOM 45, Solo Exhibition, Programa Taide, Madrid.
2020 – Dúo, Galería Nueva, Madrid
2020 – Final Selection, Premio Paul Cezanne, Subte Municipal
2020 – Qué es Liminal, Group Exhibition, Espacio Ercilla 24, Madrid
2019 – JustMad Art Fair, Madrid, Solo Booth
2019 – JustLX Art Fair, Lisboa.
2019 – Art Lima art fair, Peru.
2019 – Evidencias, Solo Exhibition, Espacio de Arte Contemporaneo, Montevideo
2019 – Untitled Spaces III, Solo Exhibition, Galería Juan Risso, Madrid. 2019 – Art on Paper art fair, NY.
2018 – Pinta Miami Art Fair, Solo Booth, Platforms Curated Sections (Curador Roc Laseca).
2018 – Premio PAUL CEZANNE, Final Selection, Group Exhibition, EAC Museum, Montevideo, Uruguay.
2018 – Este Arte Art Fair 2018, Punta del Este, Uruguay.
2017 – Uruguay Contemporary Art, Group Exhibition, Tianjin Art Academy, China.
2017 – Este Arte Art Fair 2017, Punta del Este, Uruguay.
2016 – Temporada 22, Group Exhibition, EAC Museum, Montevideo, Uruguay.
2016 – SERES, Group Exhibition, Centro Cultural de Mexico, Montevideo, Uruguay.
2016 – Premio PAUL CEZANNE, Honorable Mention, Group Exhibition, EAC Museum, Montevideo, Uruguay.
2015 – RIZZO, FOGLINO, GARCIA CRUZ, Group Exhibition, Galeria Diana Saravia, Montevideo, Uruguay.
2015 – INVADIR SIN CONQUISTAR, Performance with Santi Senso, CCE, Montevideo, Uruguay.
2015 – RETRATO CONTEMPORANEO, Group Exhibition, Subte Museum, Montevideo, Uruguay.
2014 – ANDY NY Tribute Exhibition with Vicky Barranguet, New York, USA.
2014 – Inauguracion Marte Galería de Arte, Montevideo, Uruguay.
2014 – Galeria Diana Saravia, Embajada de Mexico, Group Exhibition, Montevideo, Uruguay.
2014 – TALKING BACK, Solo Exhibition, Sofitel Hotel Casino Carrasco, Montevideo, Uruguay.
2014 – Episodio 3, Group Exhibition, Pera de Goma, Montevideo Uruguay.
2014 – GARCIA CRUZ, Solo Exhibition, Interamerican Development Bank, Washington DC, USA.
2013 – CONVENTIONAL, Solo Exhibition, Embassy of Uruguay, Washington DC, USA.
2013 – Arte 58, Torre 58, Montevideo, Uruguay 2013 – Revolutum, A Hispanic Heritage Exhibition, Harlem School for the Arts, New York, USA.
2013 – Fernandez, Barranguet, Garcia Cruz, Dejavu Art and Fashion, New york, USA.
2013 – Arty Nights, BG MOCA Internacional, Portezuelo, Uruguay.
2012 – INMANENTE, Solo Exhibition, Diana Saravia Gallery, Montevideo, Uruguay.
2012 – Pink Spring 2012, World Trade Center, Montevideo, Uruguay.
2012 – Arte en Demolición II, Montevideo, Uruguay.
2012 – Marte Invita 2012, Marte Centro Cultural, Montevideo, Uruguay.
2011 – Arte en Demolición 2011, Montevideo, Uruguay.
2009 – Viñetas Sueltas 2009, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
2009 – Montevideo Comics 2009, Montevideo, Uruguay.
2006 – Cátedra de Alicia Goyena, Montevideo, Uruguay
2006 – Hotel San Rafael. Maldonado, Uruguay
2005 – XXIV Salón Leonístico de Artes Plásticas de la Juventud, Biblioteca Nacional, Montevideo, Uruguay.
2005 –Yo Diseño, Casablanca Arts Center. Montevideo, Uruguay
Awards and recognitions
2021- Commission for the permanent Collection of Chicago Northwestern University
2021 – Carmen and Lluis Bassat award, at Swab Art Fair, Barcelona
2016 – Honorable Mention, Premio Paul Cezzane, Montevideo, Uruguay.
2011 – Honorable mention ISUSA National Painting Contest, Montevideo, Uruguay.
2008 – 6th Prize, National Youth Painting Contest, Lions Club,Montevideo, Uruguay.
2008 – 2nd Prize , Montevideo Comics Drawing Contest, Montevideo, Uruguay.
2005 – 1st Prize, National Youth Drawing Contest, Lions Club,Montevideo, Uruguay.
2005 – 1st Prize, “Knock out a las drogas” Logo Contest, organized by Uruguayan Government.
2005 – 1st prize, Sprite Illustration Contest at Montevideo Comics 2005, Montevideo, Uruguay.
Cultural Managment and Teaching
Taller Garcia Cruz
Since 2013 creates TGC, Art School for young and adult students. Areas: Comics, Illustration, Drawing, Painting
MAG
Since 2013 is the Founder and Director of MAG, Multidisciplinary Visual Arts Space ( Prado, Uruguay).
UCU
Since 2015 works as Professor at Licenciatura de Artes Visuales (Universidad Católica del Uruguay)
Contact: Dcfamilyfoundation.com
