Artist’s First US Solo Museum Exhibition Premieres As Part of the Dallas Museum of Art’s Celebrated Concentrations
Dallas, TX – September 4, 2018 – The Dallas Museum of Art presents Concentrations 61: Runo Lagomarsino, EntreMundos, the first US solo museum exhibition for the conceptual artist. The exhibition, which is on view September 30, 2018, through April 14, 2019, explores the unstable nature of national identities and mythologies through the transformation of everyday objects and phrases into historically referential works of art. With these deceptively simple transformations, Lagomarsino points to the volatile relationship between power and geography.
Concentrations 61 spans two galleries and features new commissions and previous works specifically reconfigured for the DMA. The first gallery references colonialism and its reverberations throughout the Americas; the second has resonances for the current political turmoil in the United States and beyond. The subtitle of the exhibition, EntreMundos (“between worlds” in Spanish), evokes how Lagomarsino’s work cannot be tethered to fixed identifying or spatial markers. Instead, his language is often abstract or universalizing, implicating us all in a constellation of the constant movement of people and things.
“Lagomarsino’s work exposes the power dynamics involved in who gets to claim themselves as native, as Western, or as American, and how these distinctions are ultimately arbitrary and in flux,” says Anna Katherine Brodbeck, the DMA’s Nancy and Tim Hanley Associate Curator of Contemporary Art and curator of the exhibition. “Lagomarsino responds specifically to the legacy of European colonialism and his own family history of exile during Argentina’s military dictatorship in the 1970s. But these old histories hold new lessons for the current political climate in the US, characterized by travel bans, border walls, battles over the rights of indigenous people and the protection of natural resources, and a grappling with confederate history in the wake of a resurgence of white supremacism.”
Born in Lund, Sweden, in 1977 to Argentinian parents descended from Italian émigrés, Runo Lagomarsino’s biography charts the very colonial histories that his work examines. Lagomarsino currently lives and works between Malmö, Sweden, and São Paulo, Brazil. He received a BFA from the Göteborgs Universitet Akademin Valand in 2001, and an MFA from the Konsthögskolan i Malmö, Sweden, in 2003. He subsequently participated in the Whitney Independent Study Program, New York (2007–08). His work has been exhibited in group shows at the Guggenheim, New York; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Prospect.4 New Orleans; and the Venice Biennale, among others. For more information about the artist, visit RunoLagomarsino.com.
The exhibition is part of the Museum’s Concentrations series of project-based solo exhibitions by international emerging artists. The series began in 1981 as part of the DMA’s commitment to the work of living artists.
“For nearly 40 years, the Concentrations program has proven successful in introducing emerging artists to local and international audiences alike. We believe Runo Lagomarsino is a fitting choice to continue this tradition with his focus on pressing issues of the day,” said Dr. Agustín Arteaga, the DMA’s Eugene McDermott Director. “As an institution, we are committed to expanding voices and representation, and advocating for artists early in their careers offers a unique opportunity to see and hear diverse perspectives.”
Concentrations 61: Runo Lagomarsino, EntreMundos is organized by the Dallas Museum of Art. The exhibition is curated by Anna Katherine Brodbeck, The Nancy and Tim Hanley Associate Curator of Contemporary Art at the DMA, and made possible by the TWO x TWO for AIDS and Art Fund and the DMA Contemporary Art Initiative. The exhibition is included in free general admission.
Image: Runo Lagomarsino, Crucero del Norte, 1976-2012, 24 exposed photographic papers, photo credit: Erling Lykke Jeppesen, Collection Lena and Per Josefsson, Stockholm
About the Dallas Museum of Art
Established in 1903, the Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) is among the 10 largest art museums in the country and is distinguished by its commitment to research, innovation, and public engagement. At the heart of the Museum and its programs is its global collection, which encompasses more than 24,000 works and spans 5,000 years of history, representing a full range of world cultures. Located in the nation’s largest arts district, the Museum acts as a catalyst for community creativity, engaging people of all ages and backgrounds with a diverse spectrum of programming, from exhibitions and lectures to concerts, literary events, and dramatic and dance presentations. Since the Museum’s return to free general admission in 2013, the DMA has welcomed more than 4 million visitors. For more information, visit DMA.org.
The Dallas Museum of Art is supported, in part, by the generosity of DMA Members and donors, the citizens of Dallas through the City of Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs, and the Texas Commission on the Arts.
For more information, please contact:
Jill Bernstein
Dallas Museum of Art
214-922-1802
JBernstein@DMA.org
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