Press release - Cruising Objects of Agency

CRUISING OBJECTS OF AGENCY
Garrett Nelson
Museo de la Ciudad Querétaro México
Calle Vicente Guerrero #27, Centro, 76000
Santiago de Querétaro, Qro.
Opening Friday December 11th 8pm
Daily Museum Hours 11am —7pm
www.cruisingobjectsofagency.xyz
The Museo de la Ciudad Querétaro is pleased to present the first solo exhibition of the Swiss & American
artist Garrett Nelson in México. The title of the exhibition, Cruising Objects of Agency applies the seeking of
bodies as a sexual practice to objects in a post-human ideation yet it also refers to the artist’s self described
practice of artistic research as a movement through archives, histories, references and information with a
“sharpening and fading of gazes in fear of losing sight of the object or idea of desire”. Nelson’s artworks
often spin new narratives based on myth fictions from the results of his circuitous cruising research.
The recent results have variously seen the tragic love affair between Claude Monet and Francis Picabia, the
morbid deformation of the Vitruvian man as well as the renaissance of 80s New York club kid culture in a
non-human object/poetry world. His practice follows a thread of interwoven elements that include re-using
and reiterating works in a Steinian repetition that equals reinforcement. His performative readings are text
based but words are sometimes drowned out by music or mundane actions.
The new artworks showcased in the Museo de la Ciudad bring together paintings of Mexican truck cabs,
trompe l’oeil cement bricks, 3D animation of a future non-human body, ambiguously fetishistic consumer
and design products and the relic-like tin of theatrical cold cream belonging to the silent film starlet Mabel
Normand found in her car on the night of Feb. 1st. 1922. This group of works attempts to identify the relationship between material and object lives, questioning life force as uniquely animate or animal and the
potential cyborg qualities of human products. A general framework of aesthetically constructed desire is
leveled throughout, from cinder-block pornography, dark rooms with reflective text and ominously sexual
shapes as if to set the stage for an imaginary den of inanimate iniquity.
Garrett Nelson will be performing at the museum during the opening at 9:30pm on December 4th.
Curated by Gabriel Hörner Garcia, Director of the Museo de la Ciudad Querétaro
Additional support from Prohelvetia & Kulturpauschale Basel Stadt
Biography Garrett Nelson
Born 1982 USA
Lives and works in Switzerland and Mexico
Education
2008-2010 2002-2006 2000-2001 Master of Arts Contemporary Arts Practice Fine Arts Hochschule der Künste Bern
in cooperation with FNWS Basel Hochschule der Künste
Bachelor of Arts Studio Arts, History of Art, Germanic
Studies, Henry Radford Hope School of Fine Arts
Indiana University with Honors
New School University, Parson‘s School of Design
Solo Exhibitions
2015
Cruising Objects of Agency, Museo de la Ciudad, Queretero Mexico, December 2015
The Future Myth, Oslo10 Basel, February 2015
2014 Canary Comfortable Special Island Issue, Die Diele Zürich
Tea Ceremony, Kunstraum Klingental, June 2014
2013 The Portrait of Rafael Perez Evans, Local Int, Biel
Selected Group Exhibitions and Performances
2015 Catch 15, Dienstgebäude Art Space, Zürich
Stadt Zürich Werk- Stipendien Schau, Helmhaus, Zürich
Swiss Art Awards, June, 2015
Hannah Weiner & New Poems, Kunsthalle Zürich
Collecting the Fuutre, Corner College
PC, Kunsthaus Palazzo Liestal
2014 Outsider Art Fair, Paris, October 2014 curated by Daniel Baumann & Franziska Glozer
Stadt Zürich Werk- Stipendien Schau, Helmhaus, Zürich
Sinope Biennial, Sinop Turkey
read the room/you‘ve got to, SALTS Basel curated by Quinn Latimer
2013
Les Urbaines Festival, Lausanne, December
Cantonale Berne Jura CentrePasquArt, December
Side Dishes, I shine you shine, Die Diele, Zürich, October
Squatted Trees, SALT European Kunsthalle, Istanbul, August
The State of Making Things, la rada, Locarno, August
Au Vers Vue OSLO 10, Juli 2013, Basel
The Last Line is Always a Killer, May 20 Jahre Warteck performance with
Sarah Bernauer, Fork Burk and Sarah Ried
Night of the Dew writer/director short film, Mexico
In Any Case, The Moon written and directed with Silvan Hillmann
Awards & Grants
2016 Residency Grant Hamburg City of Zürich Art Award
2016
Residency Rupert Lithuania
2014 Canton of Zürich Fine Arts Grant/Kanton Zürich Kunst Stipendium
2013-2015 GGG Stiftung Atelier Stipendium Basel
2012-2013 Atelier Mexico City (winter 2013)
2011-2012 Atelier Mexico City (winter 2011)
2010-2011 PROGR Bern, Atelier
2004-2006 Cox Scholar Award
For further information please contact the [email protected]
www.garrettnelson.ch

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