Perla Nanette Krauze Kleinbort

Posted on 30 January, 2018

Graciela Schmilchuk

Perla Krauze (Mexico City, 1953) creates processes out of extended periods of documentation and research of specific materials and sites. She is a tireless traveller and a consumate walker: she locates places rich in those things that attract her, natural or artificial, in rural or urban landscapes; these can e stones, ceramics, traces, imprints, large or tint fragments, but always focused on the precarious.

Studies

She studied Anthropology only for a year at the Escuela Nacional de Antropología e Historia, and then Graphic Design at the Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas (now called Facultad de Artes y Diseño) of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico, where she attended the engraving, screen printing and drawing workshops led by Gilberto Aceves Navarro. In 1977 she moved to London to obtain a diploma on textiles at Goldsmith’s College; in 1992, she returned to London to pursue a Masters degree in Visal Arts at Chelsea College of Art. She gives art lessons in her workshop.

Operations, processes

Perla Krauze’s work is multidisciplinary; an exploration at the threshold of the bidimensional and tridimensional levels. She goes from drawing and painting to sculpture or installation; from photography and video to interventions; in dialogue with the specific site and space. The unifying thread in her work lies in nature, time and memory. “Had I been born in a different time, I would have been a genuine landscape painter […] perhaps I am, in another fashion, using other means and a different exploration of form”. ^[i]

She uses diverse materials, allowing each them to manifest their own qualities and languages: malleability, weight, toxicity, timelessness, an ephemeral or permanent character. It is important to bear in mind that she began her University studies in Anthopology, and that archeology, both rural and urban, left an indelible imprint in her creative process.

Her exhibitions usually show a stage in a long process, begun with the exploration and research of a place: detailed observation, a particular way to walk around it, capturing its topography and documenting it in photography and video. Then there are the materials she sees and picks up, mostly waste, the rubbings of selected surfaces, the making of molds, among several other operations. Slowly, she begins to move materials to her workshop, with prolonged comings and goings.

Painting, always abstract, “hides a series of actions relating to the body,
the support, and memory.” ^[ii] Ghostly images of textures: pavements, stones, branches…

Perla Krauze refers to her work as the accumulation or lumping together of materials, be it in her workshops or her exhibitions; but there are no pileups, since she rapidly creates some sort of an ortogonal shape with an arbitrary order. For decades now she has invented and used modular elements —shelves, boxes, ladders, square platters, etc.—, to visually and physically classify the materials, often in taxonomic fashion. Her supports: the simple canvas, wood, lead, iron, cement, resins, stones, ceramics, water. A universe of textures and images.

To enter her workshop, in an ancient mansion in the Roma quarter of Mexico City, is to experience the lab and at the same time visit one or more exhibitions. It is a second home for her ideas and materials —after the site of her inotial research. However, when she exhibits in museums or galleries, the dialogue with a new space triggers another kind of experience, another landscape andspecific site, which is never merely aesthetic. She can juxtapose of small fragments, organic forms, color powder, tiny stones or bricks, to a monumental piece. And in that apparently arbitrary, but ordered, juxtaposition, there is an intertwining of chance, discourse, research, intuition and analysis of nature (worked upon or mistreated), of toxic products and pollution, of artisanal work, landscape and society (Museo Amparo, 2017), of life and destriction. Krauze works strenuously, to the point of physical exhaustion. She documents with the extreme care of an anthropologist both nature and humankind broken into pieces. Each material takes hold of her, she devotes time to it, making imprints of stones with charcoal or chalk on tarp, of the textures of pavements through rubbing them on cloth; she displays objects in various ways on tables or on the floor. The artist often refers to street markets, stalls on the floor, cabinets of curiosities: “Eventually I realized that making cabinets of curiosities was my way of engaging with space. There is the unique piece, but actually there is… the relation between works, talking to each other, becoming families or collections”. ^[iii] There is no picturesquism whatsoever; there is rather an amazing respect for each thing, for the memory of each material, as if it were an attempt to restore to them the spark of Creation.

Individual exhibitions

2017
Materia lítica: memoria/procesos/acumulaciones , Museo Amparo, Puebla, Mexico.

2016
Topografías y constelaciones , LeLaboratoire. Mexico City.

Archipiélagos , Bodega Quetzali, Oaxaca, Mexico.

2015
Naturalezas, gabinetes y colecciones , La Turbina, Tepoztlán, Morelos, Mexico.

2014
Dualidades , GAALS, Culiacán, Sinaloa, Mexico.

Estructuras/ Materiales/ Espacio , Diagrama, Mexico.

Dualidades/Natura , Proyectos Drexel. Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico.

2013
Suspended Blues , Sonja Roesch. Houston, Texas.

Rastros inadvertidos del tiempo , LeLaboratoire. Mexico City.

Structure/Imprints , Howard Scott Gallery, New York.

2012
Recorridos 14/04/12-18/05/12 , Frontground/Manolo Rivera, Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico.

Pino Suarez 30, intervención y memoria , Museo de la Ciudad de México.

2011
La vibración de las fronteras , con José González Veites, LeLaboratoire, Mexico City.

2010
Huellas y trayectos , retrospectiva (de media carrera), Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City.

Imprints , Gebert Contemporary, Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States.

Jose Alvarado 24 A / Guerrero 27 Norte , Museo de la Ciudad de Querétaro, Mexico.

2009
Stones and Flowers , Howard Scott Gallery, New York.

2008

Light and Time , Kunsthaus, Miami, Florida.

Traces, Gebert Contemporary, Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States.

Traces , Gebert Gallery, Los Angeles.

2007

Registros-Recorridos , Gal Drexel, Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico.

2006
Registros, Kunsthaus Gallery, San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico.

SFAI “Artist in Residence New Paintings” , Chiaroscuro Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States.

Traces of Matter , Sonja Roesch. Houston, Texas.

2005

Huellas de la Santa Veracruz , Museo Nacional de la Estampa, Mexico City.

Paisajes: huellas y recorridos , Galería Nina Menocal. Mexico City.

Perla Krauze, Chiaroscuro Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States.

2004
Huellas en el tiempo , Instituto de Mexico, Madrid, Spain.

Recent Work , Chiaroscuro Gallery, Scottsdale, Arizona, United States.

Suspendidos en el tiempo , Instituto de Mexico, Madrid, Spain.

2003
Suspended Matter , Sonja Roesch Gallery, Houston, Texas.

Silent Matter , Howard Scott Gallery, New York.

2002

Obra reciente , Galería Drexel, Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico.

2001

Naturaleza suspendida , escultura e instalación, Galería Nina Menocal, Mexico City.

1999

Landscapes , Iturralde Gallery, Los Angeles, California.

Huellas de la memoria , Galería Drexel, Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico.

1998

Naturalezas. Escultura e instalación , Galería Nina Menocal, Mexico City.

1997

Orígenes. Escultura , Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, Oaxaca, Mexico.

Dibujos, Galería El Estudio, Mexico City.

1996

Ties of Light and Silence , Iturralde Gallery, Los Angeles, California.

1995

Amarres de luz y silencio , Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil, Mexico City.

1994

Enfiler le Silence , Centro Cultural de México en París.

Hilvanando los silencios , Museo de Antropología, Madrid, Spain, and Gymnasio Gallery, Lisbon,
Portugal.

1990

Pintura , Galería Alejandro Gallo, Guadalajara, Jalisco,

Mexico.

Pintura y dibujo , Centro Cultural Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico.

Recent Painting and Objects , Soho Gallery, New York.

1989

Pintura y dibujo , Galería Rafael Matos, Mexico City.

1988

Pintura y dibujo , Galería Kahlo Coronel, Mexico City.

1985

Pintura y dibujo , Galería Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City.

Intervenciones in situ

2015

Collection # 18 , Redgate Gallery, Beijing, China.

2013

Imprints , Hunter College, New York.

2012

Pino Suárez 30. Intervención y memoria , Museo de la Ciudad de México,

2009

Stones and Flowers , Echigo Tsumari Art Triennial, Japan.

2007

1001 Flowers , CCA, Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States.

Studio work “Traces and Flowers”, SFAI, Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States.

2006
Enchanted Garden Hardcore Gallery, Miami, Florida.

Naturaleza móvil , El Atrio. Carabela Trolebús Educativo, Mexico City.

2005

Flores de asfalto , Fundación del Centro Histórico, Mexico City.

2004

Azotea-jardín , Correo Mayor 109, 5to. piso, Centro Histórico, Mexico City.

Awards, grants, residencies

2015

Red Gate Artist Residency, Beijing, China.

2013-16

Sistema Nacional de Creadores de Arte. Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las
Artes. Artes visuales, Mexico.

2012

MacDowell Colony/Residencia, Ellenor Briggs Fellowship.

2010

Sistema Nacional de Creadores de Arte. Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las
Artes. Artes visuales, Mexico.

2009

Support provided by Jumex for Stones and Flowers, Echigo Tsumari
Art Triennial, Japón.

2007

Residency, Santa Fe Art Institute, New Mexico, United States (November).

2006

Residency. Santa Fe Art Institute, New Mexico, United States (August and
September).

2004-07

Sistema Nacional de Creadores de Arte. Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las
Artes. Artes visuales, Mexico.

2002

Residency, Fonca, Banff Centre for the Arts, Canada.

1999

Dale Djerassi Fellowship, Djerassi Artist Residence, California.

1998-2001, 1994-97

Sistema Nacional de Creadores de Arte. Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las
Artes. Artes visuales, Mexico.

1992-93

British Council and UNAM, scholarship to studu at Chelsea College, London.

Fonca grant. “Creadores Intelectuales. Pintura”.

1990-96

6a. Bienal de Pintura Rufino Tamayo, mention, Mexico City.

1989

Salón Anual de Dibujo, mention, Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes, Mexico
City.

Salón Anual de Pintura, Premio de Adquisición, Instituto Nacional de Bellas
Artes, Mexico City.

1988

VI Bienal Iberoamericana de Pintura Domecq, menction, Mexico City.

1984

Bienal de Tapiz y Arte Textil, Prize, Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes,
Mexico City.

1983

3er. Encuentro de Arte Joven, mention, Aguascalientes, Mexico.

Works in private collections

Museo Amparo, Puebla, Mexico.

Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City.

Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil, Mexico City.

Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Oaxaca, Mexico.

Museo de la Ciudad de Querétaro, Mexico.

Museo Universitario de Ciencias y Artes, UNAM, Mexico City.

Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, Colección Manuel Felguérez, Zacatecas, Mexico.

Scottsdale Contemporary Art Museum

Kunstahaus, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.

Freedman Gallery, Albright College, Reading, PA.

Banco de Mexico, Mexico City.

Museo de la Estampa, Mexico City.

Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Mexico City.

Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores, Mexico.

Secretaría de Hacienda y Crédito Público, Mexico.

Sprint Art Collection, United States.

Albright College, Reading College, Reading, PA.

Bank of America, United States.

Lester Marks, Houston, Texas.

Victoria and Marshall Lightman

Christian Keesee Art Collection, United States.

Bibliography

Cárdenas Pacheco, Rocío, intervention at a roundtable organized at Diagrama Galeria de Arte for the exhibitionEstructura-Materiales-Espacios. Reflexiones en torno a lo pictórico, October 8, 2014.

Castillo, Erick, “El planograma esotérico” and Esther Seligson “El Santuario de Perla Krauze”, in the catalogue of the exhibition Huellas y trayectos, Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico, 2010.

Vélez, Gonzalo, “Cómo capturar el espacio-tiempo en China”, in the catalogue of the exhibition Collection #18, 2015.

www.perlakrauze.mx

Enlaces