The Armory Show 2023

 It is an honor for Instituto de Visión to share our participation in The Armory Show in New York with the work of Abel Rodríguez – Mogaje Guihu (Cahuinarí River, La Chorrera territory, Amazonas). 

Rodriguez’s work, mainly ink on paper, is characterized by a complex use of different shades of greens and browns, which are part of his memory as a wiseman of the Muinane community. Animals, fruits, water, malocas and fields that appear on his depictions, are all related to the sowing and flooding cycles of his territory. 

His particular style is characterized by the use of transparencies and by a very special way of understanding the pictorial plane, in which sometimes, several focal points coexist, or where the perspective can disappear completely. Through a mechanism of repetition, reminiscent of Pointillism, the leaves of the trees are arranged throughout the composition, where each element is part of a delicate chromatic balance. 

The work of Abel Rodriguez is particularly attractive because it differs from other indigenous practices, since it is nourished by the artist’s personal universe without belonging to a traditional stereotype or a design historically related to a community. In other words, his paintings are based on a work of emotional memory, in which landscapes are created to abstract the laws that govern the ecological balance of the Amazon.