The Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires presented the first solo exhibition in Argentina by Bernardo Ortiz (Bogotá, Colombia, 1972), an artist fascinated by the act of seeing and its distortions. With his work, Ortiz invites us to sharpen our gaze and ask ourselves how an image is constructed and what constitutes a work of art. The title itself, Erase, is an open provocation.
Ortiz’ work explores the territories of drawing, writing and typography, crossing the fragile boundary between an artwork created by writing and the drawing that forms part of a greater text: the daily practice of the artist. The result is a set of pieces that play with concrete-conceptual poetry whose every step is also a form of unravelling. This produces conversations that, regarded from both near and far, envelop us in a sharp intelligence and welcoming sense of the absurd.
His methods are simple: a sheet of paper, a bolt of silk, a laptop, ink or a hard black pencil. These modest materials impose a rigorous creative ritual: a daily return to different series in which the artist commits to using drawing as a way of depicting the passage of time. In this regard, his obsession is related to that of his architect father, as well as those of Marcel Broodthaers, On Kawara and John Cage, to mention just a few of the great artists who could well be seen as part of his genealogy or having influenced his thinking.
Bio
Bernardo Ortiz (Bogotá, 1972) studied Fine Art and Philosophy. He has held solo exhibitions in Bogotá, Sao Paulo and Seville and has taken part in several international exhibitions including the 11ème Biennale de Lyon in Lyon (2011); the 30 Bienal Internacional de Arte de São Paulo, in Sao Paulo; Marking Language, Drawing Room, in London (2013); the XI Bienal de Monterrey FEMSA, in Monterrey (2014); the XII Bienal de Cuenca, in Cuenca (2014); Game Piece, REDCAT, in Los Angeles (2015); and the 20th Sydney Biennial in Sydney (2016).
