23 July-3 August 2014
Artist reception: Wednesday, 23 July, 6PM
“Little Venice and Other Possible Realities”: Sabrina Montiel-Soto
The name of Venezuela is said to have originated from an expedition led by Alonso de Ojeda in 1499. Upon arriving at the Venezuelan coast, the stilt houses in the area of Lake Maracaibo reminded the navigator, Amerigo Vespucci, of the city of Venice, so he named the region “Veneziola”, literally “little Venice”.
Venezuelian artist Sabrina Montiel-Soto, living in Brussels, delivers a work where both identities meet, by exploring one another while acknowledging their respective cultures.
Her work confronts two realities, the indigenous and the Venetian, each with their own particular aesthetics and graphic identities. The artist takes up the role of an alchemist, who adopts one identity and overlays the other, contrasting them both in a fictional dialogue of instances made up of mixed media such as printmaking (etchings, typography, monoprint), sculpture-like objects, sound and video.
Montiel-Soto hides the obvious and leaves the essential, to create the mystery of what it is now, what was once and what could yet be, from an old colonist’s point of view. All artwork was created during the artist’s residency at the Scuola international di grafica di Venezia and in cooperation with APT, Artist Pension Trust.
This exhibit was curated by Déirdre Kelly.
(adapted from the gallery’s press materials)
INFORMATION
SG Gallery
Scuola Internazionale di Grafica
Cannaregio 1798, San Marcuola
30121 Venice, Italy
(39) 41 721 950
Hours:
Monday-Friday, 9AM-12:45PM and 2-6PM
Saturday-Sunday, by appointment
Image:
Venise-Zuela
by Sabrina Montiel-Soto
1976 guidebook, typography carved wood
work created in Venice
2014
Photo credit: Sabrina Montiel-Soto
Courtesy of the artist and SG Gallery, Venice