ART-PRESENTATION: Verónica Vázquez-The Struggle for Raw
Verónica Vázquez grew up on the other side of the world, in Uruguay, where she enjoyed a quiet childhood. She later formally studied pottery and sculpture. Perhaps it’s no wonder, given so many hours working with her hands and picking up pebbles on the beach, that she became an artist who works across media, using found materials to build conceptual assemblages.
By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Marignana Arte Archive
Verónica Vázquez performs most of her work on the basis of a detailed analysis of recycled and found materials: irons, fabrics, cartons, papers, threads. Her formative journey indicates various concerns that unfold and are recognized in his current work, in an integrated and mature. Verónica Vázquez presents “The Struggle for Raw” her first solo exhibition in Italy at Marignana Arte. Although Verónica likes to think of herself as a self-taught artist, she concedes that a series of a courses and workshops played a key role in her training process amidst the exploration of her own artistic vision. She frequented the Fundación Pablo Atchugarry, where she learned from its founder, sculptor Pablo Atchugarry. This experience allowed her to meet important figures of Uruguayan art such as: Octavio Podesta, Henrique Broglia, and Miguel Angel Battegazzore. Of significant value was her course on History and Theory of Art, by artist Miguel Ángel Battegazzore, as well as the Sculpture Workshop with Luis Robledo at the Casa de la Cultura in Maldonado Uruguay. She pursued further pottery studies in Buenos Aires and the introduction to Ceramics at CEDARTES. Her work has often a flash of social commentary, “Instalación de Moldes” (2016), for instance, includes cloth patterns, fabric pins, and textile samples the artist sourced from an abandoned clothing factory. “I went into a factory that had been closed for many years, I saw sewing and textile patterns, machines and their parts; the workshop was in a low-ceilinged loft where around 20 women had worked for years”. In this era of fast fashion, the weight and quality of the clothiers’ tools seem like relics of another time. The same could be said of earlier works Vázquez made with old typography boxes, in a digital age, these assemblages, like “Typography drawer” (2010), evoke a gentler past. The exhibition is also an important opportunity for the public to approach the sculpture idioms of Central America.
Info: Curator: Ilaria Bignotti, Marignana Arte, Dorsoduro 141, Rio Terà dei Catecumeni, Venice, Duration: 23/9-23/12/17, Days & Hours: Tue-Wed 14:00-18:30, Thu-Sun 11:00-13:30 & 14:00-18:30, www.marignanaarte.it
