Luciana Rondolini: The Lineage of Stones
@ The Mission
1431 W Chicago Ave, Chicago, IL
Opening Friday, November 7th, from 6PM - 8PM
On view through Saturday, December 20th
THE MISSION is pleased to present The Lineage of Stones, an exhibition of recent drawings by Argentine artist Luciana Rondolini. In her first solo exhibition in the United States, Rondolini presents graphite drawings of American pop icons – Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber, and Lady Gaga – with their faces and skin covered in diamonds and jewels. The exhibition also includes an installation entitled Tiffany, an arrangement of various fruits that the artist has adorned with a layer of gemstones and plastic beads. These ornamented citrus fruits, apples, and bananas resemble pieces of jewelry, but wither and brown as they ripen and decay. An opening reception will be held on Friday, November 7 from 6 to 8pm. The show continues through Saturday, December 20, 2014.
The Lineage of Stones is a continuation of Luciana Rondolini’s ongoing analysis of consumerism and materialism. The works presented in this exhibition investigate the value associated with objects and people – as well as the habits that determine their use and subsequent disposal – as evidence of the ephemeral nature of relationships in society. As a symbol of material wealth, jewels are associated with vanity and social status. These treasures are at the center of Rondolini’s drawings and installations, and she employs them as vehicles to explore fleeting desire, the longing for the unnecessary or impossible, and the intoxicating penchant for the unattainable.
Veering into the middle ground between appropriations of pop culture and shiny kitsch, artist Luciana Rondolini creates a new breed of popular art by fleshing out the space between consumption and desire. The artist skates on these edges, creating drawings of flattened pop stars, molding diamond-studs onto the rinds of rotting fruit, and excerpting various iterations of Miley Cyrus’ gyrating tongue. Her graphite-on-paper drawings and throwaway sculptures produce an overwhelming desire to possess these celebrity renditions and rotting status symbols, all of which will eventually decompose, mature, or just plain disappear. Instead we’re left always wanting more from objects and images specifically designed to never satisfy.
– Alicia Eler
An essay by Los Angeles-based art critic, culture journalist and writer Alicia Eler will accompany the exhibition. An exhibition brochure will also be available.
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Tags: Luciana Rondolini, The Mission
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