Antonio Puri





CONCRETE + STRUCTURE + MULTIPLE

"Know thyself"Socrates

Antonio Puri’s works reflect on their own nature, breaking their primary two-dimensional state and deconstructing, transforming predeterminations and labels. His creation is honest, since it allows one to see its material condition: the reverse, the stretcher bars in which it is held, the joints, the screws, and finally, the transformation into large three-dimensional structures that challenge the idea of paintings that hang on a wall.

The work Lengua Negra Doble (Double Black Tongue) part of the series of three works called Lengua Negra, is a set of 148 stretcher bars wrapped with organic jute from India and then he applied acrylic paint, to create a monumental unit. Canvases assembled one above the other, with marks on both their front and back, present a three-dimensional object that requires a large space to be appreciated from all sides. As a self-reference, the name of this series originates from how the artist was superstitiously named in his childhood: in the Hindi language, it is called Kali zabanor black tongue, one who has the ability to say things which come true.

Born in the city of Chandigarh (India), with an education in arts from the San Francisco Academy of Art and Coe College in Iowa (United States), along with a law degree from the University of Iowa, Antonio Puri reflects upon his life experiences in both the East and the West. This is evident in the complexity of personal symbols and metaphors presented in his works. As he himself admits, the works he does are "always about his own life".

One of the central pieces in this show, titled C. Diff, composed of 150 paintings on handmade cotton paper mounted on wood, denotes his cultural hybridity and existential self-reflection. In this work, Puri transforms a cartography sketch designed by the architect and urban planner Le Corbusier between 1947 and 1951, as part of the Pilot Plan for the city of Bogotá. The modern urban model of Le Corbusier could not be carried out due to lack of response from the authorities of this Latin American city, but fortunately, the master architect was able to realize it, adapting it to a new context in the city of Chandigarh. It is here that we find coincidences that enhance the works of Puri, born in this city: the artist creates a maquette of a wall from the Government Museum and Art Gallery of Chandigarh, each panel representing one of the 150 blocks of concrete in a similar dimension. This visionary project of Le Corbusier that was born in Bogota but became concrete in India, is again transferred by Puri to its original city of creation. The transformation that occurs by the displacement, the adaptation that this entails and the new appearing structure, transmits the complexities that Puri wants to make evident in each series. This work shows different layers of meaning: various grays of concrete, symbols representing the bacteriaClostridium difficile, contracted by the artist while eating street food in New Delhi, the holes in the concrete from the wooden mold that created them, represented by grey circles with resin, the 22 karat gold from India and El Dorado, the maps and texts from different addresses that marked his life, are all combined in this immense composition that forces the observer to stop and discover new horizons of meaning.

This diversity of symbols and materials he uses are combined with a complex minimalism, as presented in this exhibition. Homelessis a series of 162 individual pieces on handmade cotton paper, through which the artist reflects on the concept of home. Puri says: "a home is not a house"; he considers that inner identity lies in not having a defined home. Fiftyis a series of 50 compositions in inks and mixed media over handmade paper, created as a celebration of his 50 years on earth. These paintings represent his visual memories commemorating vital experiences, turning them into space-time representations of each of the years lived. My soul has many shadows, a series of 18 drawings in small format, gives an account of the weight in the artist’s soul, which gets lighter as he spends his allocated time here. Finally, the painting House No 24is a metaphorical grid of the birthplace of Puri, and relates to the sectors designed by Le Corbusier for the city of Chandigarh.

The works of Antonio Puri force us to appreciate, subtly, three polyvalent concepts that appear almost obsessively in his work: the concrete, the structure and the multiple. The layers of experience from the journey of Puri’s own existence, converted into veilings of monochromatic paintings, demand careful observation in order to discover that beneath tranquility lies the deepest and most intricate.

Alejandra Fonseca
Curator

installation from Elvira Moreno Gallery, Bogota, Colombia, 2018