Mario García Torres – Jameel Arts Centre

Mario García Torres

For the sake of the exhibition

Mario García Torres, For the sake of the exhibition, n.d., Water-based paint, varnish, titanium white powder, yolk, vinegar, Arabic gum and honey on cotton canvas, 147.5 x 144.3 x 3 cm. Art Jameel Collection. Photo by Sebastiano Pellion di Persano.

Artwork Details

Artist

Mario García Torres

Title

For the sake of the exhibition

Date

n.d.

Medium

Water-based paint, varnish, titanium white powder, yolk, vinegar, Arabic gum and honey on cotton canvas

Dimensions

147.5 x 144.3 x 3 cm

Credit Line

Art Jameel Collection

Work Description

For the sake of the exhibition is a large, minimalist painting created following formulas written by the Italian artist Giorgio de Chirico for the preparation of canvases. Its dimensions faithfully replicates the size of the last painting de Chirico worked on. De Chirico wrote a manuscript containing all the formulas and technical annotations for his paintings, marking a unique period in modern art where attention was more focused on the semantic and iconographic contents of artwork rather than the means through which these are expressed. These formulas provide insight into the material realm of De Chirico’s paintings, as well as his technical research. García Torres has reproduced these formulas using the same materials de Chirico would have used. The exact materials that make up the formulas are noted in the medium of the artwork caption above.

Responding to the legacies of conceptual art and institutional critique, Mario García Torres is a conceptual artist interested in uncovering compelling narratives: a secret that was never told, a phone number for an imaginary museum, the work of a gifted but unknown filmmaker, or the search for an elusive hotel. He often juxtaposes facts with imagined scenes, blurring truth and fiction along the way. From augmented reality to video, sound installation to painting, sculpture to drawing, García Torres’s works prompt us to consider the subjective nature of historical records, the limitations of memory and the possibilities of perception. The reflection on the concept of unfinished, incomplete or not completed, is a theme in these works. He eliminates the creation’s date of his art pieces to free them of immediate interpretation and chronological restrictions.

Artist Biography

Mario García Torres (b.1975, Monclova, Mexico) lives and works between Mexico City and Los Angeles

Appropriation, storytelling, reenactment, reportage and repetition are a few of the strategies Mario García Torres deploys in his works in order to uncover histories and narratives that highlight the limitation of factual evidence and the subjectivity of historical records. Attached to the historical settings of his projects, his works bridge the past and present by raising awareness about historical knowledge and excluded content, which often reveal the nature of memory. García Torres received a BFA from the Universidad de Monterrey (1998) and an MFA from the California Institute of the Arts, Valencia (2005). Major exhibitions have been held at WIELS, Brussels (2019); Walker Art Centre, Minneapolis (2018) and he has participated in international exhibitions such as Sharjah Biennial 13 (2017); Manifesta 11, Zurich (2016); Documenta 23, Kassel (2012); Bienal de São Paulo, Brazil (2010) and the 52nd Venice Biennale (2007). His work is present in the collections of Tate Modern, Guggenheim Museum, Centre Pompidou and Stedelijk Museum.

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