Juan Muñoz: Drawings
Frith Street Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition of work by Juan Munoz.
While Munoz is known primarily for his sculptural work in this country, this exhibition centres around his drawings. In the upper gallery we present a series of drawings relating to ‘Positive Corner’, Munoz’ contribution to this year’s Documenta. The lower gallery contains an installation of drawings, all based upon Joseph Conrad’s short story ‘An Outpost of Progress’; they are also studies for a book to be published by the artist and Frith Street Gallery in 1993.
Conrad’s story tells of two emissaries of ‘progress’ who become demoralised and deranged by their isolation in Africa. Conrad’s tale assails the foundations of civilisation by implying and gradually making explicit the extremely sceptical view that civilisation is hollow at the core, being a deceptive system of conventions, institutions and sustaining illusions. Once individuals are isolated from that system, the hollowness is revealed.
This is a theme which is echoed in much of Munoz’ work, but which has been particularly evident in his sculptural installations. He seems to be searching for a sight on which meaning might be constructed. His preference for marginal characters derived from popular culture; dwarves, ballerinas, prompters and ventriloquists dummies, who can tell us things not granted to others, indicates a desire to reveal the mechanics and tricks of revelation. The often elaborate, spatially intricate settings in which Munoz’ characters sometimes find themselves are spaces of distancing and inaccessibility.
Juan Munoz was born in Madrid in 1953. In 1979 he studied at the Central School of Art and Design and Croydon School of Art and Technology, London and in 1982 at the Pratt Institute, New York. His recent one-man exhibitions include: Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol, Renaissance Society, Chicago (1990); Museum Haus Lange, Krefeld, Galerie Konrad Fischer, Dusseldorf, Marian Goodman Gallery, New York, Stedelijk Van Abbe Museum, Eindhoven. He was also included in Possible Worlds at the Sepentine Gallery and ICA in 1990, Double Take at the Hayward Gallery in 1992 and Documenta IX.