Elizabeth Xi Bauer Gallery, London, is pleased to announce Antonio Pichillá’s first solo exhibition in Europe. This exhibition closely follows Inherited Threads, at Tate Modern, a new collection display of works by North and Latin American artists that were recently acquired by the institution, as well as Antonio Pichillá Quiacaín: Tejiendo El Paisaje, a video installation at the Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara.

For the exhibition opening this September at Elizabeth Xi Bauer, Pichillá will experiment with ways of hanging and displaying his works, including: hanging them from the ceiling; video installation; as well as utilising found objects from nature and alongside those that are man-made.

Antonio Pichillá focuses on the ever-developing connections between western contemporary art and the vernacular tradition of craft. Using natural materials Pichillá draws from Mayan epistemology to: “Restlessly look for a bond that integrate(s) with the environment as something inexact, uncodified. I struggle to give form to transitory states”.

Examining the ancient culture of his native Tz’utujil heritage and the postcolonial notion of a homogenous national identity, Pichillá’s works are an act of resistance to otherness and binary constructions of identity. Instead, his work celebrates the heterogeneity of everyday contemporary Tz’utujil life. From his studio at Lake Atitlán the artist’s practice is driven by anthropological research into Guatemala’s urban and rural regions. Pichillá is interested in the relationship between found natural objects, such as rocks and branches and his textile works, as well as man-made objects.

Elizabeth Xi Bauer presents Antonio Pichillá: In front of the lake which runs from 29th September to 25th November 2023 (extended), open Wednesday through to Saturday, 12 – 6 pm or by appointment. A Private View was held on Thursday, 28th September, 2023.

Elizabeth Xi Bauer Gallery
Fuel Tank, 8-12 Creekside
London SE8 3DX
020 3048 5220
contact@lizxib.com