Liliana Porter. The Colour Red

The first solo exhibition in France of Argentinean artist, Liliana Porter, presents a visual commentary on the inherent duality of the human condition.

"I am interested in the simultaneity of humor and distress, banality and the possibility of meaning." –Liliana Porter, 2012

The color red can be used to suggest happiness or good luck, and simultaneously mortality, or death. This co-existence of humor and distress, interiority and identity, is implicit in Porter’s work, which explores the contradictions present within the human condition.

The Colour Red will feature the artist's new works in addition to photography and video, as well as works on canvas, prints, drawings, collages, and small installations. Many of these pieces depict a cast of characters, inanimate objects, toys, and figurines found in flea markets and antique stores. Placed by the artist in various situations and unexpected encounters, each finished work can be perceived as a theatrical vignette that is animated by the gaze of the viewer.

The Colour Red illuminates Porter’s concern with an awareness of the impossibility of understanding and simultaneously, the possibility of dialogue among dissimilar times and physicalities. Porter refreshingly abandons hierarchies and disparities, juxtaposing hybrid images to display a poetic and poignant reality.

The exhibition will open on Saturday, September 8th from 6–9pm in the presence of the artist.

Liliana Porter (b. 1941) Buenos Aires, Argentina, has lived and worked in New York City since 1964. One of the most cited Argentinean artists in contemporary culture, Porter's oeuvre spans mediums including photography, printmaking, works on canvas, works on paper, installation, and video. Her work has been shown nationally and internationally and is represented in many public and private collections, among them: TATE Modern Collection, London, UK; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas, Venezuela; Philadelphia Museum of Art; La Biblioteque Nationale, Paris, France; The New York Public Library; Museo de Arte Moderno, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Museo de Bellas Artes, Santiago, Chile; Museo de Arte Moderno, Bogota, Colombia; Blanton Museum, Austin, TX; Museo del Barrio, New York; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC; The Bronx Museum for the Arts, New York; Museo Tamayo, México D.F.; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain; Daros Collection Zurich, Switzerland; Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires; Brooklyn Museum, NY, NY; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX ; and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA.

Liliana Porter
The Colour Red