the art collectors

Friday, July 31st, 2009

Breaking Boundaries :: Confines/Valencia09

Anish Kapoor – The Healing of St. Thomas, 1991. (Image courtesy of IVAM)

Confines – the term suggests restrictions and limited possibilities, yet each of the artists taking part in the exhibit currently on view at the Valencian Institute of Modern Art explore and challenge notions of boundary, both physical and psychological.

The exhibition celebrates IVAM’s 20th anniversary and is divided into four distinct, yet thematically connected parts. Beginning with History of the Border, Confines explores ways in which artists have navigated boundaries between realism and abstraction through the presentation of a cohesive historical codex of lines, including works by Mark Rothko, Frank Stella, Anish Kapoor, Sean Scully, Barnett Newman, and Dan Flavin, along with several others.

Borders of Time includes recent video works from eleven artists, which taken together juxtapose the ephemeral to the infinite, and highlight the increasing erosion of temporal linearity as reflected within the arts. Artists included are Jaishri Abichandani, David Claerbout, Harry Shearer, Jonas Mekas, Liliana Porter, Olga Chernysheva, Patricia Esquivias, Sun Xun, and Zimmer Frei.

Geography and the Boundary contemplates increasingly elusive distinctions between art and architecture, with more than thirty participants, including Matthew Ritchie, Ryan McGinness, Tom Sachs, Antony Gormley, and Thurkal + Tagra.

Lastly, Visions of the Frontier (see video below) breaks away from any preconceived context, displaying a joint installation of works from artists left free to explore their own idealized visions, amongst them, Christopher Knowles, Matt Leines, Jonathan Meese, Megan Whitmarsh, Misaki Kawai, Ed Templeton, and the late Dash Snow.

Browse or download the full exhibition catalog here. Confines/Valencia09 runs through November 15, 2009 at IVAM, Valencia, Spain.

Visions of Frontiers at IVAM, Valencia Courtesy of mattoquai via Vimeo