Openings to Further Enclosures 2017
Openings to Further Enclosures
The Hunter College Project Space is pleased to present a solo exhibition of drawing/collages by Colombian-born, New York based artist Daniel Mantilla.
Using diverse materials and a wide range of marking methods and depictive styles, Mantilla`s protagonists inherit the staccato energy of his line as restless activity. His cast of characters engage, observe, support, disrupt, love, hate and converse in environments suggestive of domestic spaces, urban settings, gardens and river banks. Spatial uncertainty prevails as attempts are made towards equilibrium using rickety structures and contraptions that also require some assistance. Mantilla remembers handmade scaffolds supporting precarious structures from his childhood in Bogota and Ibague, and discarded materials repurposed to buttress falling walls or patch bridges and houses.
These ad hoc solutions have become metaphors for his character`s efforts at communication and interpersonal relations. All is in flux, identities are unstable, things and events are in transition to uncertain destinations.Though dangers exist, there are no dull moments, and the overall tone of Mantilla`s scenes is one of adventure, resilience and surprise.
It is possible that inventiveness and imagination may, in the end, win the day.
Joel Carreiro
Curator
