Diaz Contemporary | Georgina Bringas, Rodrigo Matheus, Ricardo Rendón

9 August to 6 September 2008
Opening Saturday 9 August from 3 to 6
Artists in attendance

Georgina Bringas, Linear Journey
Rodrigo Matheus, The World We Live In
Ricardo Rendón, Open Window

Diaz Contemporary is pleased to present the works of Georgina Bringas,
Rodrigo Matheus and Ricardo Rendón in a group exhibition. Although they
work in different media and produce quite distinct works, these artists
have a connection in that they all seek to explore the notion of the
artistic process.

Georgina Bringas: Linear Journey
The works in Georgina Bringas’ Linear Journey forge a personal relationship
to everyday standardized measurements, units and calculations. In twelve
square and circular canvases, Bringas embroiders thread of various
standardized lengths, resulting in a gradation of tonal quality from canvas
to canvas. The meticulous application of thread contributes not only to
the formal qualities of the work, but also to its conceptual attributes.
Bringas comes to understand her surroundings through the evaluation of
numerical expressions as an evocative approach to the world and how it
operates. Springing from the idea that to measure is to learn, Bringas
better understands her environment through her artistic process. She uses
these tools of measurement to create meaningful reflections on space,
distance, and time.

Mexico City-based Georgina Bringas has exhibited throughout Mexico and
abroad. She has participated in recent exhibitions at Washington DC’s
Cultural Center BID (2003), Rome’s IILA Video Art Competition (2003) and
Come Closer at Berlin’s Künstlerhaus Bethanien (2005).

Rodrigo Matheus: The World We Live In
Rodrigo Matheus’ work comments on the overly efficient nature of
contemporary culture in an effort to expose its fragility. In his
object-and video-based works, Matheus invokes order, sterility and control,
while at the same time triggering an equally obsessive desire for the
antithetical notions of spontaneity and abnormality. To contrast
contemporary culture’s “programmed” notions of labour and capital, Matheus
constructs non-productive spaces in an effort to complicate our ideas of
efficiency. In his most recent works, the artist distinguishes artifice
(that which is mechanically or digitally constructed) from the physical
world of nature. The concept of time and temporal conflicts enter Matheus’
works and artistic process: While acknowledging that his artistic
production takes place in the present moment, he notes that it is formed
(and informed) by a sort of vintage memory of the recent past.
Simultaneously, his work and process have an inherent element of the near
future.

Rodrigo Matheus lives and works in São Paulo, Brazil. He has a B.A. in
Multimedia and Intermedia from the Escola de Comunicações e Artes da
Universidade de São Paulo. He has exhibited throughout Brazil with recent
solo exhibitions at Galeria Fortes Vilaça in São Paulo (2008), Galeria Box
4 in Rio de Janeiro (2006), and Galeria Casa Triângulo in São Paulo (2005).
Recent group exhibitions include: Looks Conceptual, or How I Confused Carl
Andre with a Pile of Bricks at Galeria Vermelho (2008); The World We Live
In, Museu da Imagen e do Som (2008); and Cover, Museu de Arte Moderna
(2008) – all in São Paulo. Matheus was also included in the Images Festival
at the Art Gallery of York University in April 2008 and is currently the
artist-in-residence.

Ricardo Rendón: Open Window
Ricardo Rendón’s interest in the artistic process seeks to uncover
motivation and answer the question, “Why do we create?” Whether spontaneous
or intentional, random or controlled, to Rendón there is no correct answer,
but only evolutions of forms that are constantly changing. In his
installation Open Window, he covers the gallery windows with wood panels,
which are then drilled with a 2-1/2 inch circular saw. The leftover, or
“waste” material created during the process is left untouched, to show the
work’s progress. Rendón finds it more important to stress the development
of the artistic environment rather than the display of completed works. In
this piece, the creative practice and its outcomes are treated together as
a work of art, integrated by events and eventualities charged with the
collective spark of their perpetual ignition.

Ricardo Rendón, who lives in Mexico City, works with a wide range of media
including installation, sculpture, multimedia, video and sound art. He has
an extensive exhibition record – both in Mexico and abroad – and has
received international recognition and awards. His works have recently
been exhibited at ARCO 2005, the Künstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin (2005),
the Cultural Center of Mexico in Paris (2005), Videobrasil, Videolisboa
(2003), Mexico City’s Tamayo Museum (2003), and the Carrillo Gil Arts
Museum, Mexico City (2003).

This exhibition is supported in part by the Consejo Nacional para la
Cultura y las Artes, CONACULTA (National Council of Arts and Culture),
Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes, FONCA (National fund for
Culture and Arts), Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores, SRE (Ministry of
Foreign Affairs) and the General Consulate of Mexico in Toronto.

Additional thanks to the Art Gallery of York University (AGYU) for
equipment resources.

Gallery Hours: Tuesday to Saturday 11 to 6, or by appointment