Hexton Gallery is pleased to announce Memory of the World, the first solo exhibition in the United States by Argentinian artist Marcos Acosta. An internationally recognized talent across South America, Acosta presents a collection of sixteen recent works produced exclusively for this show.
Acosta's paintings illuminate humanity’s intersection with the natural world and evolved out of his upbringing near the Sierras de Córdoba in central Argentina.
Moving between realism and abstraction, the works explore both the physical and metaphysical realms, observing the landscape from the perspective of our emotional response rather than its appearance. Acosta entices us to feel these spaces rather than simply observe their vast beauty, for “it is in nature,” believes Acosta, “that we see ourselves most deeply.”
The dramatic canyons and jagged mountain tops that populate his work are interrupted by abstractions, more intuitive than mathematical, which alter our perspective while tracing our arrival into these spaces. “Although we are a part of nature ourselves,” says the artist, “our feelings of immersion and then separation from it can create tension. These disruptive geometries make us pause and question that tension, even challenge it. In the end, we are all one and the same.”
What seems at first a hyperrealistic representation of his surroundings is more a combination of memories and images that form his own interpretation of the landscape. Beyond this, Acosta finds the natural world as a rare form of self-portrait, discovering himself in the elements represented in his paintings. “When I look at a rock, I wonder what part of it is in me and what part of me is in the rock.”
Having spent so much time himself in these landscapes, Acosta is continuously drawn to the mystical aspect of ascending these mountains or finding his way into these remote canyons. Such spaces can have a profound impact on our lives, stretching far beyond the walls and peaks depicted so eloquently across Acosta’s canon of work. By dissecting notions of time, space, and existence, his paintings are an exercise of presence, of the awareness of being alive.
