NADA East Broadway is pleased to host 05:59, a group exhibition presented by Concordia, featuring six Colombian artists: Alejandro Sintura, Ana Mosseri, Juan Rodriguez, Luisa Montoya, Margarita Gutierrez, and Teresa Sánchez.
Curated by Danielle Juliao and Martin Isaza, the exhibition will be on view from October 17th to November 7th, 2024 at 311 East Broadway, 2nd Floor.
Press Release:
05:59 unites a diverse group of artists from various generations who currently live and work in Bogotá, Colombia. The lush landscape that surrounds them—characterized by hills, forest vegetation, wetlands, and meandering rivers—anchors the exhibition, with the artists’ creative inquiry centered around the contemplation of their constant temporal changes. In the selected works, Margarita Gutierrez, Teresa Sanchez, Ana Mosseri, Juan Rodriguez Varon, Alejandro Sintura, and Luisa Montoya find common ground through the synthesization of form, contributing to a reimagined vision of the traditional landscape genre.
Co-curated by Danielle Juliao and Martin Isaza and on view at NADA East Broadway, 05:59 is a reflection on the passage of time, highlighting the subtle changes in light that suggest it. The former is palpable in Alejandro Sintura’s depiction of the Andean sky in his painting Nube, and in Teresa Sanchez’s Llovizna, a fleeting moment immortalized through sculpture. In parallel, the show fosters a dialogue among the artists on view, who, whether engaging with natural or constructed landscapes, set a conversation of color in motion. The contrast between warmer and darker tonalities emerges as a recurring motif throughout.
In Colombia, the depiction of landscape gained prominence in the later half of the 19th century with the advent of the “Escuela de la Sabana” (School of the Savannah). Similar to the Impressionists, these artists traveled to rural areas to portray the countryside in a mimetic style. Then, the 20th century heralded the rise of Modern Art, prompting many artists to explore synthetic and expressionist abstraction.
Featured artists Teresa Sánchez and Margarita Gutiérrez adopted the modernist trends in the 1970s, while maintaining engagement with classical themes. Their oeuvre oscillates between two abstract modalities: the rational and geometric, and the gestural and expressionist. In their early years, they employed lines and precise shapes, which continue to influence their more organic pieces today, as well as the younger generation of artists in the region.
For instance, Margarita Gutiérrez’s Ola caída illustrates her frequent visits to the sea. She abstracts this experience through a horizon line and constructs the wave with a range of colors from orange to blue. Her drawings reflect a desire for synthesis, accentuating color and exploring the diverse shades inherent in landscapes.
Teresa Sánchez embodies abstraction by distilling the environment into its most essential form. Using different types of wood—cedar, walnut, and yellow—she constructs figures that subtly suggest natural elements, alluding through the colors and finishes of her chosen material.
Ana Mosseri’s practice, grounded in the study of color theory and composition, explores everyday life through various media, including photography and digital sketches. Her triptych Tarde de perros (Dogs Afternoon) features blue as a central element, offering a new perspective on a familiar landscape through its tonal variations and smooth pictorial sequence.
Juan Rodríguez Varón is captivated by light as a transformative force. By observing and reinterpreting familiar spaces and objects, he abstracts the landscape through brushstrokes and colors, with changes synthesized into vivid chromatic expressions, as seen in Flor Azul and Reflejo Amarillo.
Luisa Montoya examines memory, observation, and the relationship between interior and exterior spaces. Her work transfigures edited images into drawings and paintings that capture the essence of nature.
In Horizonte (2024), Alejandro Sintura presents a skyscape in cobalt blue and hints of purple, suggesting dusk or dawn from a bird’s eye view and leaving the interpretation of time and space open to spectators.
05:59 invites viewers to intimately consider new ways of conceiving and interpreting the landscape. By grounding their perceptions in color and images from memory, the artists collectively challenge the notion of what a “pure landscape” should be. Blurring these conceptual boundaries becomes intriguing as the reunion of artworks confronts the reality of contemporary New York.