14. For all intensive purposes Irene de Andrés, Amy Garofano, Rehana Zaman Syndicate at Aspect/Ratio 864 N Ashland, Chicago US 5 January - 17 February
Images / Text
Daily Lazy / Bad at Sports / Art and Object
An exhibition featuring three international artists sharing a sustained, visual resistance to male, Christian, and Eurocentric hegemony as related to the invention of the West. Their work reconfigures imposed socioeconomic or religious practices that serve an unbroken narrative of human progress: a manufactured concept bridging classical antiquity to contemporary nationhood, then authenticating it as the exclusive province of a small subset within its composite citizenry.
While any presentation on this subject bears evident limitations, the dialogue amongst these positions – on the colonial invasion of America, Islam’s foundational place in European culture, the legacy of decorative arts, and the complex social structures governing an infamous open-air market – may help calibrate our understanding of history to come.
‘If western culture were real, we wouldn’t spend so much time talking it up.’
– Kwame Appiah, BBC Reith Lecture on Culture, 2017
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Irene de Andrés (1986 ES) recently completed residencies at Atelier Salzamt (Linz AT) and Beta Local (San Juan PR). She has a current solo exhibition at Fundación Joan Miró / espai13 in Barcelona, and contributed to projects at Museo Nacional de Arte de Méjico (Mexico City MX), M HKA (Antwerp BE), and with Syndicate at COFA Contemporary 2016 (Cologne DE). Last year, Escuela Flora Ars+Natura (Bogotá CO) awarded de Andrés a six-month fellowship. In 2015, she won the Antoni Gelabert Visual Arts Prize from Casal Solleric (Palma de Mallorca ES). She lives in Madrid and Ibiza.
Amy Garofano (1980 US) produced solo projects this past year for Richard Telles Fine Art (Los Angeles US), and Good Weather (North Little Rock, Arkansas) as well as a solo booth with them at NADA Miami Beach 2016. She has also shown with Good Weather at NADA Miami 2017, and as part of exhibitions at Egyptian Art & Antiques, BBQLA, and Loudhailer Gallery in Los Angeles. Garofano completed her MFA at Cranbrook Academy of Art in 2012, and lives in Los Angeles.
Rehana Zaman (1982 UK) received the Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award in November 2017. This February, she has a solo exhibition at CCA Glasgow, and participates in the 2018 Liverpool Biennial. Other recent solo projects include Syndicate at Material Art Fair 2017 (Mexico City MX), Tenderpixel (London UK), Art Rotterdam Projections 2014 (Rotterdam NL), and The Tetley (Leeds UK). Zaman contributed to group exhibitions with Syndicate at Snehta (Athens GR), ‘Dry Goods’ at Syndicate (Cologne DE), Jerwood Space (London UK), Off-Biennale Budapest (HU), Whitechapel Gallery, and The Showroom (both London UK). Zaman completed her MFA at Goldsmiths College in 2011, and lives in London.