The Tiroche DeLeon Collection presented its first exhibition of highlights of its Latin American Collection  at Mana Wynwood during Art Basel Miami, December 2 to 6, 2015. Curated by London based art historian, patron, and collector Catherine Petitgas.

Adriano Costa, "When Attitudes Become Farm", 2013. Rug, straw treadmill, plastic, acrylic on wood and fabric, 340 x 197 cm.

The Tiroche DeLeon Collection is known for identifying upcoming emerging talents from developing countries around the world. For this exhibition, it is proud to honor Eduardo Basualdo from Argentina, who is broadly represented in the collection. The title of the exhibition, borrowed from a work by Argentine artist Adrian Villar Rojas, alludes to the common practice among contemporary artists from the region to subvert the canons of mainstream art to produce thought-provoking, often humorous works. With 55 pieces by 30 artists, the exhibition explores several different facets of this approach. Highlights include a focus on ‘experimental’ drawing with individual displays by artists such as Eduardo Basualdo, from Argentina; Mateo Lopez and Nicolas Paris from Colombia; deconstructed painting and sculpture with large-scale displays by Brazilian artists Leda Catunda, Adriano Costa, Maria Nepomuceno, Erika Verzutti and Cuban artists Los Carpinteros, among others; and a strong emphasis on street art and urban culture, with large-scale participative installations by Os Gemeos and Paulo Nazareth from Brazil, and individual displays by Mexican artists Pedro Reyes, Moris, and Edgardo Aragon. With a mix of works by established and emerging artists in a wide range of media, Everything you are I am not offers a fascinating survey of current contemporary practices in Latin America.

About Mana Contemporary

Founded in 2011, Mana Contemporary is a leading arts destination dedicated to celebrating the creative process. Headquartered in a former tobacco warehouse in Jersey City, Mana unites artists’ studios, exhibition spaces, and ancillary services in a single location, facilitating conversation and collaboration among its burgeoning creative community. Together with its sister campuses in Chicago and Miami, Mana serves as a lively center for all members of the art world. Mana Contemporary is home to the Richard Meier Model Museum, Ayn Foundation, the International Center of Photography, The Florence Academy of Art, Gary Lichtenstein Editions, Eileen S. Kaminsky Family Foundation, Armitage Gone! Dance, Keating Foundry, Shen Wei Dance Arts, Mana Urban Arts Project, and many others. 

Eduardo Basualdo, "Sky", 2013, Glass, rope, lamp, lacquer.

About Eduardo Basualdo

Born in 1977 in Buenos Aires, Argentina – Eduardo Basualdo lives and works in Buenos Aires. His art is one of passages and thresholds: between the material and the immaterial, the visible and the invisible, the word and the thing and also between different moments in time – for these, the artist prefers the notion of limbo, conceived of not as a final destination for unsaved souls but as a waiting-space: the prenatal wait within the womb, the imminence of impending dawn. Basualdo has exhibited widely, including at the Whitechapel in London, La Maison Rouge in Paris, XII Bienal de la Habana in Havana Cuba, “All the World’s Futures” at the 56^th Venice Biennial Italy, Gwangju Biennale South Korea, Fondation Jumex Mexico City and the 7^th Bienal del Mercosur Porto Alegre Brasil. He participated in numerous residencies and won several awards, including from the Tiroche DeLeon Collection. Eduardo Basualdo is represented by Ruth Benzacar Gallery in Buenos Aires, PSM Gallery in Berlin and Luisa Strina Gallery in Sao Paolo.

About Catherine Petitgas

Catherine Petitgas is a London-based art historian, patron and collector who focuses on contemporary art from Latin America. She is a member of the Tate Latin American Acquisitions Committee, the Council of the Serpentine Gallery, a trustee of the Whitechapel Gallery and of Gasworks Triangle Network. She was co-curator of PINTA Projects, the curated section of PINTA, the Modern & Contemporary Latin American Fair in London in 2013 and 2014. She was executive editor of Contemporary ArtBrazil (2012), Contemporary Art Mexico (2014) and is currently working on Contemporary Art Colombia, all co-published by TransGlobe and Thames and Hudson, London.

To take a virtual tour of the exhibition, click here. For more details about the works and the exhibition, click here.