{"id":9631,"date":"2019-02-11T18:54:50","date_gmt":"2019-02-12T02:54:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lesliedinaberg.com\/wordpress\/?p=9631"},"modified":"2019-02-11T18:54:50","modified_gmt":"2019-02-12T02:54:50","slug":"lara-favaretto-at-mcasb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lesliedinaberg.com\/wordpress\/?p=9631","title":{"rendered":"Lara Favaretto at MCASB"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Lara

Lara Favaretto, Coppie Semplici (Simple Couples) , 2009, Installation view at Sharjah Biennial, UAE, 2009, Courtesy the Artist and Galleria Franco Noero.<\/p><\/div>\n

First solo U.S. West Coast exhibition for\u00a0Turin, Italy-based artist +\u00a0first exhibit fully conceived under the direction of MCASB’s new Chief Curator Abaseh Mirvali.<\/h4>\n

\u201cIt was important that I begin my tenure at MCASB by providing a platform for an artist whose work while conceptually impeccable, so poignantly examines the human condition. I wanted to honor what moved me and share her work with the community here,\u201d says\u00a0Abaseh Mirvali<\/a>,\u00a0MCASB\u2019s recently appointed Executive Director and Chief Curator.<\/p>\n

Opening on\u00a0Tuesday, February 12 (with a public reception from 6-8 p.m.) is\u00a0Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara’s (MCASB)<\/a> newest contemporary art\u00a0exhibition, a solo show featuring works spanning Artist Lara Favaretto<\/a>‘s\u00a0<\/span>more than 20-year career. Presented in collaboration with Rennie Collection<\/a>, Vancouver, Canada, this exhibition marks Favaretto\u2019s solo U.S. West Coast institutional debut, as well as the first show initiated under the direction of Mirvali.<\/p>\n

On view through April 28, the exhibition\u2019s execution reflects many of the core values that Mirvali has brought to MCASB after a well-established career in the global arts circuit. \u201cI have been following Rennie Collection for man years now since we share a similar artistic philosophy as well as social responsibility,\u201d says Mirvali.<\/p>\n

According to statement from MCASB<\/a>, “Throughout Favaretto\u2019s work, the artist incorporates found materials. Trash may be recycled, while lost and discarded items are re-purposed. Her installations and sculptures often show the artist\u2019s interest for the past, the forgotten, the disregarded. Yet, Favaretto\u2019s overall oeuvre also questions why certain objects survive over others, contemplating their legitimacy in relation to the forgotten, while exposing their inevitable destiny: wear, corrosion, erosion, and breakage. Favaretto could be regarded as the continuation of a series of 20th-century artists whose major concern was questioning the meaning of art, sometimes through play and dark humor.”<\/p>\n

“… (Favaretto’s) artistic production\u2014however colored by notes of Abstract Art, Arte Povera, Kinetic\u00a0<\/span>Art, Land Art, or Minimal Art\u2014is composed of aspects that in addition to questioning the intellectual status of a piece of art, are also interrelated to our humaneness. Her work is ephemeral, transient, spontaneous, unpredictable, changing, and even vulnerable, like us,\u201d says Mirvali.<\/p>\n

\"Lara

Lara Favaretto, Lost & Found, 1998, Courtesy the Artist; Rennie Collection, Vancouver, Canada; and Galleria Franco Noero, Turin, Italy, Photo by Blaine Campbell.<\/p><\/div>\n

The exhibition will be shown across four different exhibition sites, including:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. MCASB\u2019s main space<\/strong>,\u00a0showing Favaretto\u2019s installation Coppie Semplici<\/em> (Simple Couples<\/em>),\u00a0<\/span>comprised of moving car wash brushes that alternate between high-speed mechanical rotations and stagnation. Removed from their original context, the brushes spin aimlessly as they deteriorate over time. Also on exhibit in the Museum\u2019s main space will be a work from Favaretto\u2019s ongoing series of collected suitcases, Lost & Found<\/em>. After obtaining a forgotten suitcase\u2014found at state-run auctions of lost and found items from the Italian railway system, flea-markets, and dumps\u2014Favaretto combines the existing contents with new, unknown items, then locks the case and throws the key away, never allowing the contents to be revealed.<\/li>\n
  2. \n

    On view in a downtown storefront<\/strong>\u00a0(907 State St.) from Feb. 12-Apr. 28 is\u00a0Tutti gi\u00f9 per terra<\/em> (We All Fall Down<\/em>), one installation of a number of works by Favaretto that follow a consistent form: sealed rooms within rooms containing industrial fans that flush tons (literally) of confetti around the space progressively. Through its materiality\u2014or lack of it\u2014this piece embraces a plethora of dichotomies which speak to our human\u00a0 condition and exemplify our binary nature: perpetuity\/impermanence, noise\/silence, creation\/destruction, growth\/decay.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  3. The Glass Box Gallery at UCSB<\/strong> will have two concrete works from Rennie Collection on view from Feb. 13-22 opening a dialogue between activity and passivity, movement and stasis, anger and boredom. Fisting<\/em>\u00a0<\/span>and Boring<\/em><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/em>are part of a series in which Favaretto uses her body to imprint\u00a0<\/span><\/span>a particular action in a block of recently-poured concrete. As intended by the artist, over time the blocks are subject to wear from exposure to sunlight and air. The title of each work\u2014always a human action\u2014captures the individual state of mind or gesture that has been performed by Favaretto. Glass Box Gallery<\/a> is the UCSB Art Department\u2019s student-run exhibition space in Building 534 (Space 1328).<\/li>\n
  4. \n

    In the Santa Barbara Funk Zone district, Favaretto will place a glossy plaque reading \u201cDefense D\u2019entrer,\u201d or \u201cDo Not Enter,\u201d at the Museum\u2019s future location<\/strong> (35 Anacapa St.), forbidding visitors to pass over the plaque. By restricting the entrance to the land, the artist raises questions regarding private property and the need to safeguard an empty lot.\u00a0MCASB will announce future events to take\u00a0<\/span>place there over the duration of the exhibition.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    \"Lara

    Lara Favaretto, Simple Couples, 2009, Car wash brushes, iron slabs, motors, electrical boxes, wires, site specific installation, Courtesy Rennie Collection, Vancouver. Photo: Blaine Campbell.<\/p><\/div>\n

    Favaretto\u2019s work has been featured in solo exhibitions at Kunsthalle Mainz, Mainz, Germany (2018); Nottingham Contemporary, Nottingham, UK (2017); Rennie Collection, Vancouver, Canada (2015); MoMA PS1, New York, USA (2012); Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah, UAE (2012); Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art, Turin, Italy (2005); and the Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art, Bergamo, Italy (2002). Group exhibitions include Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, USA (2018); Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, USA (2017); Liverpool Biennial, Liverpool, UK (2016); Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt, Germany (2014); Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France (2006); Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, USA (2005); and the Venetian Pavilion, 51st Venice Biennale, Italy (2005).<\/p>\n

    Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara is located at\u00a0653 Paseo Nuevo. For more information, visit mcasantabarbara.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    \u2014Leslie Dinaberg<\/a><\/p>\n

    Originally published in Santa Barbara Seasons<\/em><\/a> on February 7, 2019.<\/p>\n

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