Art Omi held solo exhibitions featuring the work Liliana Porter and Ana Tiscornia. These two artists have resided together and shared studio space for decades (currently in Rhinebeck, NY) and while they have their own individual artistic practices their relationship has created a zone where their artistic processes, materials, subjects and themes overlap. The exhibition at Art Omi will create an opportunity for the viewer to experience the unique storytelling of their artistic worlds side by side.
Liliana Porter works across mediums with installation, assemblage, photography, collage, theater, and public art. Porter’s work often employs a cast of characters that are inanimate objects, miniatures, toys and figurines. Porter places her characters into “theatrical vignettes” which become visual comments that speak of the human condition often with fantastical and unsettling effect. In Porter’s recent installation Man with Ax, 2017 (currently on view at the "Viva Arte Viva", La Biennale di Venezia, 57th International Art Exhibition, Venice Italy) we find a tiny man destroying his surroundings comprised of mini-machines, Mao propaganda, and debris. This everyman faces an insurmountable task of breaking down and clearing away the oppression of the civilization that surrounds him. While on the other side of the installation a tiny woman knits a giant piece of pink tulle, in the company of agrarians. Employing these kitsch treasures to tell her tale Porter uses her stage to discuss the complexity of the contemporary world.
This exhibition will be a unique opportunity for Porter and Tiscornia to share their work in the region where they live. Both artists have shown extensively throughout the US, Europe and South America but rarely close to home. Additionally the exhibition at Art Omi will showcase a new video works currently being created by Porter. This exhibition will be a first in showing Porter’s video alongside her assemblage installation work.
This project has been supported by a grant from the Artist's Resource Trust.