SMU’s Pollock Gallery Presents Acts of Aggression: An Exhibition About Community, September 9 – October 14, 2017
Opening reception and curator walk-through on Saturday, Sept. 9 from 2 to 5 p.m.; artists’ talk on Saturday, Oct. 14 from 3 to 5 p.m.
The Pollock Gallery of the Division of Art at SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts will present the exhibition Acts of Aggression: An Exhibition About Community, curated by Laura A. L. Wellen, Ph.D., from September 9 through October 14, 2017.
With objects, images, texts and social projects by 11 contemporary artists from Guatemala, Acts of Aggression considers the many ways people construct and process experiences of community, especially within dystopic day-to-day realities. From processes of remembrance, solitude, play, misunderstanding, collaboration and care, people experience myriad forms of interaction with others. Through these shifting points of contact, connection and disconnection, humans outline the ever-changing parameters of their communities and define their own situations within them. Working 20 years after the official end of Guatemala’s civil war, the artists in Acts of Aggressionnavigate the reconciliation of historic brutality with ongoing violence, challenge political amnesia, care for themselves and others, and build strategies for working through and around disastrous systemic failures. Acts of Aggression looks to small gestures, conversations and ways of being to suggest their deep political relevance and argues that people’s attempts (and failures) to connect to each other constitute a resilience that has significant ramifications for how one might face current aggressions. Participating artists include Hellen Ascoli, Esvin Alarcón Lam, Edgar Calel, Manuel Chavajay Moralez, Margarita Figueroa, Jorge de León, Reyes Josué Morales, Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa, Gabriel Rodríguez Pellecer, Mario Santizo and Inés Verdugo. The exhibition is accompanied by a bilingual (English/Spanish) catalogue.
An opening reception will be held Saturday, September 9 from 2 to 5 p.m., with a tour of the exhibit by the curator. The exhibit’s closing day on Saturday, October 14 will feature a talk from 3 to 5 p.m. with Meadows Division of Art Chair James Sullivan, curator Laura Wellen, and artists Hellen Ascoli and Reyes Josué Morales.
About the Curator:
Laura A. L. Wellen makes texts and exhibitions that find points of connection between people’s emotional lives and their regional histories and landscapes. Since 2014, she has been working between Houston and Guatemala City, where she runs the apartment gallery and artist residency Yvonne. Her writing has been published in ArtForum, Art Lies, Artishock, Art Review, Arts + Culture Texas and Pastelegram, among other international publications. She holds a Ph.D. in art history and is a 2017 recipient of the Creative Capital | Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant for her website. She is also a 2017-18 Core Program Critic-in-Residence at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
Manuel Chavajay, Oq Ximtali, 2017. Video performance, 3 min. Image courtesy the artist & Galería EXTRA
About the Pollock Gallery:
The Pollock Gallery is located on the first floor of the Hughes-Trigg Student Center, 3140 Dyer St. on the Southern Methodist University campus in Dallas. Gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday. The gallery is closed Sunday and Monday. Admission is free. For more information, call 214-768-4439 or visit here.