Opening & Performance: Saturday, January 18th from 2-4pm
Reception: Thursday, February 13th, 6-8pm; Curator Talk with Laura Roulet at 7pm
Where: Target Gallery, Torpedo Factory Art Center, 105 N. Union Street, Alexandria, VA
Description:
Target Gallery presents it’s first curated show of 2014, Frances Gallardo: Meteorology. The exhibition will run from Saturday, January 18th through Sunday, March 2nd, 2014 and will feature large-scale cut-paper installations, sculpture, and conceptual performance art. There will be an opening reception and performance on Saturday, January 18th from 2-4pm. There will be an additional reception on Thursday, February 13th from 6-8pm, which will include a curator talk by Laura Roulet at 7pm.
The deceptive beauty of Frances Gallardo’s cut-paper hurricane series belies the urgent underlying theme of climate change, which is a particular threat for her native island of Puerto Rico in the Tropics. Gallardo’s work combines exquisitely crafted cut-paper installations with conceptual performance art. Delving beneath the surface, paper serves as a metaphor for human skin and vulnerability. Based on satellite imagery appropriated from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) website, Meteorology includes large-scale cut-paper installations and sculpture. The public opening on Saturday, January 18 will include a site-responsive performance by the artist.
About Frances Gallardo
Frances Gallardo (b. 1984 San Juan, Puerto Rico) lives and works in San Juan and New York. She graduated in 2008 from the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras. She has held residencies at the Center for Book Arts (NYC) and Beta Local (San Juan). In 2012, she was awarded the Lexus Prize and was featured in a solo exhibit at the Puerto Rican Institute of Culture in San Juan. This is her first exhibition in the DMV region.
Curator Information – About Laura Roulet
Laura Roulet is an independent curator and writer, specializing in contemporary and Latin American art. She was one of five international curators chosen for the citywide public art project, 5 x 5, a major initiative sponsored by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities in 2012. She has organized exhibitions in Mexico, Puerto Rico and Washington DC including at the Art Museum of the Americas, the Mexican Cultural Institute, Artisphere, Hillyer Art Space, Project 4, Fusebox and the DC Art Center. Recent exhibits include Sculpting Outside the Lines, an outdoor sculpture exhibit in Foggy Bottom and Medios y ambientes in Mexico City. Her publications include many catalogue essays, encyclopedia entries, articles in American Art, Art Journal, Art Nexus, Sculpture, and the book Contemporary Puerto Rican Installation Art, the Guagua Aerea, the Trojan Horse and the Termite. She worked on the Ana Mendieta retrospective, organized by the Hirshhorn Museum in 2004, and contributed to that catalogue.
