FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
American Fields by ERNESO PUJOL
Buscando al príncipe azul by SILVIA GRUNER
September 5 – October 11, 2003
Reception: Friday, September 5 from 7 to 9 PM
ITURRALDE GALLERY
116 S. La Brea Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90036
(323) 937-4267 phone; (323) 937-4269 fax
E-mail: itugal@veriomail.com
Web site: http://artscenecal.com/Iturralde.html
Gallery Hours: Tuesday - Friday 10AM to 5PM, Saturdays 11AM to 5PM and by appointment
Los Angeles, CA. – ITURRALDE GALLERY announces the exhibition “American Fields” by ERNESTO PUJOL and the presentation of the video “Buscando al Príncipe Azul” (2) by SILVIA GRUNER. The exhibitions will open with a reception on Friday, September 5 from 7 to 9 PM, and will run thru October 11.
Ernesto Pujol was born in Havana, Cuba in 1957, but grew up in Puerto Rico. He currently resides and works out of Brooklyn, NY. He has studied at the University of Puerto Rico and has done graduate work in Education at the Universidad Interamericana, San Juan; in Therapy at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn; and in Media Theory at Hunter College in New York. Pujol also holds a theology certificate from St. John Viannery Seminary in Miami, FL.
Ernesto Pujol has exhibited his works throughout the United States, Africa, Europe and Latin America, including the VI Havana Biennial; Second Johannesburg Biennial, South Africa; Bronx Museum, New York; Museo Rufino Tamayo, Mexico City; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.
“American Fields” examines Ernesto Pujol’s conception of the confines of American freedom, emblematized within his portrayals of outdoor space. During bicycle rides in Lehigh, Pennsylvania, Pujol observed and photographed various man-made constructs, ranging from a velodrome to cornfields. With this installation, Pujol has set forth to document the ways in which humans try to encroach upon and control their environment, whether through the erection of concrete edifices, or with the carefully calculated arrangements of corn. He explores the manipulation of space further within the context of 40 x 60” prints that seem to delineate boundaries on the supposed vastness of outdoor space. Pujol is indicating that “humankind’s obsessive need to corral space” is a direct metaphor for our purported sense of freedom, for “we are only as powerful and free as we are allowed to be”. 1
The exhibition includes eight large photographs and an installation with twelve corncobs cast in aluminum.
In the video room, Silvia Gruner presents “Buscando al príncipe azul” (2). Filmed in 2002 in Ho-Chi-Min City in Vietnam, Silvia plays with images of Vietnamese women riding scooters, perhaps in search of their prince charming. Born in 1959, Gruner is a Mexico City-based conceptual artist, whose videos and work have been exhibited extensively throughout the world.
1. Marian Mc Lellan. “Fields & Limits”, New Orleans Review, May/June 2003
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