Juan Pablo Garza

NADA Miami 2018

Photos: Raquel Perez-Rubio

Objects and their own logic, objects as concepts. Speaking of them and many other things that justify their own presence, I say: form is not denial, let the content be conceived and suspended in the air with the vibration of the work. I commit myself to a continuous swing, to the possibility of incorporating the transformation from one state to another. Hey, Come here! I proudly present these messy fruits to you. The still life as a kind of structure for thoughts, a mental place to sort ideas. Ideas that are born out of physical contact with the world, things, and objects. A still life then becomes an instrument to ponder my relationship with art and the way I experience the world. Like that phrase by Cezanne: I will conquer Paris with an apple. It Is the apple as an excuse to think about painting. A key moment in which paint starts to become self-aware. the fundamentals of care, the fundamentals of the fundamentals. Vertical pastures.

For some time now I have been interested in that place where decorative objects and visual arts meet. My first encounters with art were through my father ́s Sunday paintings and through my mother’s meticulous organization of objects all over the house. I also believe that my first creative experience was the moment I started actively being a part in the construction of the Christmas tree and the nativity scene during the month of December. In some ways my work is a continuation of these two activities. Every day is definitive.
To be able to listen to the work, to let it do its will. Disasters, chance and missteps can be part of that will. The work knows and understands more than I do, like a temple or a landscape. I'm interested in that place where intuition clothes aesthetic, chance depletes the predictable and doubt is the place of
creation. Let ́s not crush the ambiguous. Art is an ordinary activity linked to every day life, at the same time you would need multiple points of views in order to have a small idea of its nature. I believe that art exists between these two places, the mundane and the sacred. Celestial planting.

Juan Pablo Garza was born in Maracaibo, Venezuela (1980). He currently lives and works in Miami. Garza ́s work has been exhibited in several countries: Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Panama, Chile, Canada, United States, Spain, Holland and Germany. His solo show Reforma del Ahora (Al Borde. Maracaibo, 2012) was published in ArtForum as one of the best exhibitions of the year according to curator Sofia Hernandez Chong Cuy. He was co-founder and co-director of the Contemporary Art Space Al Borde (2010-2014) in Maracaibo, which in 2012 won a grant from the Fundación Cisneros/CPPC within its program to support cultural organizations. Garza was selected to participate in the residency program Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, with a grant from the Fundación Cisneros/CPPC. Most recently has participated in Ox-Bow fall residency program and Bemis Center residency program. He is currently participating in the two-year studio residency offered by Art Center South Florida.