WAITING ROOM

JOHANNA UNZUETA | When the wind goes wrong

March 9 - April 20, 2018

VIEW EXHIBITION

In the Waiting Room, Johanna Unzueta will present “When the wind goes wrong”, a selection of handcrafted sculptural elements made from felt and thread. This work exemplifies Unzueta’s interest in the transitory nature of specific spaces. Often regarded with banal indifference, waiting rooms are momentary spaces where people tend to lose their focus and shift into a dimension of “non-thinking”. The artist likens the transitory qualities of these rooms to the similarly transitional inner-workings the mind. While in this state of waiting, our minds collect images, feelings and sometimes sounds that manifest seemingly out of nowhere. Memories rise to the surface then gently re-submerge. Waiting rooms can conjure feelings of déjà vu and an ambivalent sense of the familiar. Unzueta’s felt sculptures tap directly into this recognition of the commonplace, depicting unassuming walls with protruding sink and faucet fixtures. Hung with intentional irregularity throughout the room, Unzueta’s work disrupts one’s expectations of their given surroundings, propelling those in wait to fully consider their place in the passing moment.

Born in Santiago, Chile, Johanna Unzueta received her Bachelor of Arts from the Universidad Católica de Chile in 1999. She has shown internationally in several solo exhibitions including: Sala de Arte Público Siqueiros (Mexico City); Galería Gabriela Mistral (Santiago de Chile); Johannes Vogt Gallery (New York); and Christinger De Mayo (Zürich). Gallery and museums group exhibitions include: Galerie Greengrassi, (London); Galerie Von Bartha (Basel); Proyectos Ultravioleta (Guatemala); and El Museo del Barrio (New York). Unzueta has been an Artist-in-Residence at La Tallera, Sala de Arte Publico Siquiros, Cuernavaca, Mexico (2015), Beta Local-The Harbour (2013), DIVA – The Danish Arts Council Committee for International Visual Arts (2012), Capacete, Rio de Janeiro (2007) and Art Omi, Gent, New York (2001). Later this year Unzueta will have her work featured at the Berlin Biennale in the exhibition “We Don’t Need Another Hero”, curated by Gabi Ngcobo.