Ester Partegas

Foxy Production announces Civilization Is Overrated, Ester Partegas' fourth New York solo exhibition. Civilization Is Overrated presents a darkly comic turn to Partegas' Pop-influenced handmade explorations of urban space and consumer lifestyles. Dramatically-scaled sculptures engulf the entire gallery: a trompe-l'oeil thirteen foot high throw-away plastic bag is squeezed between floor and ceiling; a regular-sized bench nestles at its base, appearing miniaturized; a glistening wintry tree sculpture towers alongside, furthering a sense of disorientation; other fabricated detritus are crammed into the remaining space.

Partegas invites us to enter a paradoxical, almost Beckettian world that suggests the possibility of both inevitable apocalypse and a continuous present - doomsday everyday. Her "endgame" embodies a cool aesthetic that transcends reassuring notions of the "handmade" and questions the packaged nature of urban design and culture. Partegas brings a "Biotech" currency into play: her angular tree sculpture is an actualization of virtual modeling; its wooden trunk and branches are geometrical, yet its irregular structure suggests mutation. Civilization Is Overrated offers no safe viewing positions; like an enormous viral life form, it physically overwhelms.

Ester Partegas was born in 1972 in La Garriga, Barcelona, and is based in Brooklyn. She holds a BFA from the Universitat de Barcelona and has completed postgraduate studies in Multimedia at Hochschule der KŸnste, Berlin. Selected solo exhibitions include Centre d'Art Santa M—nica, Barcelona (2003); Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, Buffalo, NY (2003); Rice University Art Gallery, Houston, TX (2002); Helga de Alvear, Madrid (2001). Selected group exhibitions: 'The Paper Sculpture Show', SculptureCenter, New York (2003); 'Outer City/Inner Space', Whitney Museum of American Art at Altria, New York (2002). 'The Passions of the Good Citizen', apexart curatorial program, New York (2002). Partegˆs has been featured in Flash Art, Tema Celeste, Sculpture, Cabinet, ABC Cultural, Lapiz and ArtText.

Pressetext

Ester Partegas: civilization is overrated