New York, (EFE).- The Chilean multidisciplinary artist Sylvia Palacios Whitman, who has lived in New York for six decades and whose work is on display until July 22 at the Americas Society, “activated” several drawings that portray her childhood recounting the stories that inspired them.
Palacios Whitman, who was part of the artistic avant-garde in Manhattan in the 1970s and at 82 years old is enjoying his first solo exhibition in the United States, starred this Wednesday in a “performance” based on his memories, an act that moved and amused to a majority Latino audience.
The artist, whose work rotates between the visual and the “performance”, delved into the autobiographical material that feeds the fifteen drawings of “Visit to See the Monkey and Other Childhood Stories” (Visit to see the monkey and other childhood stories). , created between 1960 and 2019 looking at his native Chile.
Moving, making gestures, even putting on a fake mustache, Palacios Whitman evoked in a monologue in English the experiences portrayed, from earthquakes capable of putting cows on trees to his adventures jumping out the window with a friend or escaping from the mother superior of his school.
These drawings are key in the exhibition dedicated to him by the Americas Society, called “To Draw a Line with the Body” (Draw a line with the body) and which includes sketches, videos with photographic documentation of his “performances” and new works on paper on a large scale, since it has never stopped producing.
The artist studied painting and sculpture at the School of Fine Arts of the University of Chile, in Santiago, and at the age of 20 she moved to the Big Apple, where she joined the art scene; in that environment she met her husband, from whom she took her second last name, and later she experimented with movement and contemporary dance.
In the 1980s he focused on mixing materials for drawings, collages and paintings, with dark tones and geometric designs that evolved in the 2010s towards lighter tones and human shapes, while in the current decade he opts for the sculptures.
Palacios Whitman, who after her “performance” declared herself grateful to have this exhibition, described her art to EFE as something “immediate” and, entering the gallery, she assured that she was surprised to find works that she previously had all over the house, “Even in the bathroom,” he added.
Among them are the most recent, “Floor drawings”, some drawings on brown paper that are displayed without frills on the floor, as he had them in his living room; and also in that material some sculptures that form armchairs or a cone in which he has written the names of all the people he has known.
The curators, Aimé Iglesias Lukin and Rachel Remick, highlighted in a note that the show is one more example of an artist who has not received the institutional attention it deserves, and pointed out that her work invites us to think about childhood and nostalgia not only from the point of view of a woman artist, but of a migrant woman.