Lara Favaretto: Blind Spot / The Bass, Miami Beach

The exhibition “Lara Favaretto: Blind Spot” at The Bass in Miami Beach presents an arrangement of new and recent works alongside ongoing series from the Italian artist’s practice. The solo show also features a new, site-specific work commissioned for the museum’s permanent collection. Highlights are Favaretto’s interactive installation “Momentary Monument – The Library” (2012-2019), a bookcase displaying 2,000 books gathered in Miami and saved from their destined disposal, and a newly commissioned, site-specific work for The Bass’ permanent collection, “Gummo VI” (2019), an installation comprising five automated car wash brushes constantly twirling and wearing themselves down against metal plates.

Lara Favaretto: Blind Spot / The Bass, Miami Beach. December 6, 2019.

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Exhibition text:

Incorporating paintings, sculpture and interactive installations, Lara Favaretto: Blind Spot presents an arrangement of new and recent works alongside ongoing series from the artist’s practice. The exhibition also features a new, site-specific work commissioned for the museum’s permanent collection.

Favaretto embraces the idea of constant change, creating works of art and situations that are in flux. Though often humorous and playful, her works address more serious matters such as decay, consumption and loss. Using elements like obsolete technologies to subtly refer to the passing of time, Favaretto incorporates found materials that are repurposed in her work. These upcycled materials – such as found paintings, discarded books and weathered construction materials – serve as commentary on the lifecycle of material detritus. Favaretto’s oeuvre highlights her interest in exploring ideas of the survival of certain objects over others, while contemplating their legitimacy in relation to the forgotten and exposing their inevitable destiny of wear, corrosion, erosion and breakage.

Highlights from Blind Spot will include Favaretto’s interactive installation Momentary Monument – The Library (2012-2019), a bookcase displaying 2,000 books gathered in Miami and saved from their destined disposal. Each book contains folded images from the artist’s archive, printed onto a sheet of mould-made paper. Beginning in 1995, the archive constitutes a sort of visual reservoir that feeds all of her artistic production. Additional works include a silver plaque with a slit for putting in coins for charity that bears an engraving filled with Savoy-blue enamel forming the words “Your Money Here”; and a newly commissioned, site-specific work for The Bass’ permanent collection, Gummo VI (2019), an installation comprising five automated car wash brushes constantly twirling and wearing themselves down against metal plates. The exhibition will also feature new works from other ongoing series including wool paintings and scaffolding tube sculptures.

ABOUT THE ARTIST
Lara Favaretto (b.1973, Treviso, Italy) lives and works in Torino. Her work ranges from site-specific installations, audiovisual installations and performances to found objects, paintings, photography and sculptures. Her investigations explore the ambivalence of aesthetic forms and concepts of negation, the durability of objects and the ephemeral nature of events. Lara Favaretto’s work is always the outcome of profound conceptual researches. Her practice is a balance between failure and aspiration and by interacting with spaces, it emerges in powerful, almost violent, actions while appearing with stunning aesthetic quality.

She has participated in the Biennale of Sydney (2008); the Sharjah Biennial (2009); the Istanbul Biennial (2011); dOCUMENTA(13) in Kassel, Germany and Kabul, Afghanistan (2012); Carnegie International, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, USA (2013); Manifesta 10, The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg (2014); the Liverpool Biennial (2016); Skulptur Projekte in Münster (2017); Manifesta 12, Palermo (2018); Biennale di Venezia, Venice (2019, 2009, 2005). She has had solo and group exhibitions at Kunsthalle Mainz, Mainz, Germany (2018); Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai, UAE (2018); Queensland Art Gallery / Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Queensland Australia (2018); Lehmbruck Museum, Duisburg, Germany (2018); Kunsthalle Tübingen, Germany (2018); Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, USA (2018); Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, USA (2018); Nottingham Contemporary, Nottingham, UK (2017); Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, USA (2017); MOCA, Cleveland, USA (2017), Rennie Collection, Vancouver, Canada (2015); MAXXI, Rome, Italy (2015, 2010); Henry Moore Institute, Leeds, UK(2015), Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen, Denmark (2015); Castello di Rivoli – Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Rivoli Italy (2014, 2010, 2005); Schrin Kunsthalle, Frankfurt, Frankfurt and Main, Germany (2014); Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, USA (2013); Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France (2013); MoMA PS1, New York, USA (2012, 2011); Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah, UAE (2012); Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, USA (2012, 2010); The Gardens, Vilnius Lithuania (2012); CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco, USA (2012); MUSAC, León Spain (2011); Museo Fortuny, Venice Italy (2010); Fundación/Colección, Jumex, Mexico City Mexico (2010); Magasin, Centre d’art contemporain de Grenoble, France (2010); MART – Museo d’arte moderna e Contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto, Rovereto, Italy (2010); Tramway, Glasgow, UK (2009); Museo MADRE, Naples, Italy (2009); MOCA, Los Angeles, USA (2005); GAMeC, Bergamo, Italy (2002).

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