Felipe Baeza, Maureen Paley, exhibition review: ‘Rupture and regeneration’
The show features seven pieces created using a range of techniques. Photograph: Maureen Paley
Myth, migration and identity are themes woven through the rich new exhibition of work by Mexican artist Felipe Baeza at Maureen Paley.
The artist’s first solo show in the UK, this collection of seven multimedia images reflects a range of techniques, including layering, collage and décollage.
Ahuehuete, 2018. Image: courtesy of the artist and Maureen Paley
Stories of rupture and regeneration from Mayan and Afrofuturist mythology permeate the richly coloured and textured paintings.
Resonant in these images are the perils of crossings, both physical and metaphorical.
Dislocation is evident in titles such as “I open against my will dreaming of other planets I am dreaming of other ways of seeing this life,” and others mixing Spanish and English.
Baeza, who has himself migrated to his current home in New York, says of his work: “I aim to render visible those bodies and histories that have been rendered invisible and have disappeared.
“In making the invisible visible and vice versa I aim to challenge those notions that keep people in the margins.
my vision is small fixed to what can be heard between the ears the spot between the eyes a well-spring opening to el mundo grande, 2018. Image: courtesy of the artist and Maureen Paley
“In these pieces I exploit collage and printmaking elements to show how the body undergoes fragmentation or is pulled apart and dismembered, then reconstructed.
“This leads to questions I present such as how one honours those who are no longer with us and have disappeared in the process of migrating for a better life.”
Felipe Baeza is on until 6 January 2019.
Maureen Paley
21 Herald Street
E2 6JT