: 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.
