Mónica Castillo Kicks Off NMWA's New Arts Initiative, Women Artists Worldwide

WASHINTON, D.C.

:The National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) launches its new exhibition program "Women Artists Worldwide" - a long-term series of exhibitions cosponsored and organized with international embassies - focusing on contemporary women artists from countries around the world to increase the recognition of all living women artists.

To kickoff the series, NMWA will present the exhibition "Mónica Castillo: The Painter and the Body." Comprised of ten works of art addressing issues of identity, representation and verisimilitude, the show will be on view at October 5-January 22.

Castillo (born 1961) is one of Mexico's most important contemporary artists whose mediums include painting, sculpture, video and digitally manipulated photographs. Castillo's pieces are thoughtful, highly intellectual and well crafted with a distinctive approach to her art making - a seemingly detached, almost scientific investigation of her subjects. Whether the subjects are leaves and flowers, the bodies of models, or her own face, Castillo dissects, performs experiments, tests physiological reactions and explores facial topographies.

During the 1990s, Castillo received critical acclaim with her self-portraits. Often employing surprising materials and techniques - bread, bronze, cotton, cow hides, stones and fingernail clippings - Castillo emphasizes the limits of representations and their ability to determine perceptions.

With wit and insight, in some works Castillo explores art's ability to come as close as possible to representing a subject by painting directly on her subject. On the surface of an ear, knee or hand, Castillo paints representations of the very same body part, and thus achieves a kind of hyperrealism of the body.

Castillo has had solo exhibitions in museums in Mexico City, Caracas, Santiago de Chile and Bogotá, as well as solo exhibitions in Munich, New York and Los Angeles.

Britta Konau, associate curator of modern and contemporary art for the NMWA, is the curator for the exhibition, which was organized by the NMWA with the Cultural Institute of the Embassy of Mexico.

On Thursday, October 6, at noon, the NMWA will host a Gallery Talk when artist Mónica Castillo will discuss her approach to representation as she conducts an informal tour in the exhibition. The talk is free with museum admission. Reservations are not required.

The museum is at 1250 New York Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C., in a landmark building near the White House. For information, 202-783-5000 or www.nmwa.org.