Shop the Show: Mexico City’s Galería Hilario Galguera Inaugurates Its Outdoor Space With an Ebullient Installation of Sculptures

Artnet Gallery Network May 3, 2021 ShareShare This Article

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What You Need to Know: Mexico City’s Galería Hilario Galguera is opening its outdoor terrace as an exhibition space with “Under the Loggia,” an open-air exhibition curated in affiliation with Martha’s Vineyard’s Winter Street Gallery. The refreshing exhibition of contemporary sculpture includes works by four New York-based artists, Carl D’Alvia, Al Freeman, Tony Matelli, and Kayode Ojo.

Inside the gallery, the exhibition “Post Tenebras Spero Lvcem,” curated by gallery founder Hilario Galguera, acts as a kind of foil to the outdoor exhibition’s ebullient spirit, and is marked by dark, monochromatic works that focus on the complex realities of our time.

Installation view of “Under a Loggia,” 2021. Courtesy of Galería Hilario Galguera and Winter Street Gallery.

Why We Like It: A witty sense of humor runs through the exhibition, revealing each artist’s unique attitudes toward visual culture. And lots of uncanny art-historical and social references wait to be uncovered. For starters, the title of the exhibition makes reference to a fictional novel (about a tryst in Italy) that is central to the plot of E.M. Forster’s A Room with a View, while also winking at the setting of the outdoor exhibition space. A work like Kayode Ojo’s You Can’t Afford Her, in which teardrop chandelier beads hang in a strand from a sheet music stand, amusingly conjures up all sorts of classical portraits of wealthy women. Tony Matelli’s Caesar, meanwhile, has the look of an ancient ruin but instead is a commercially made sculpture that the artist has sandblasted.

What the Gallery Says: “The gallery exhibition ‘Post Tenebras Spero Lvcem’ translated from Latin means ‘after darkness, there will be light.’ This a metaphor to give hope during these times of uncertainty. From the interior of the gallery space we are transported outside to the gallery terrace and the lighthearted exhibition ‘Under a Loggia,’ which brings together four artists who are at the gallery for the first time, and the artworks carry a sense of optimism and energy,” said gallery founder Hilario Galguera.