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featured artists
Monica Castillo
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biography
(b. Mexico City, 1961; lives and works in Mexico City and New York).
Since 1993, this Mexican artist has been making portraits of herself, and most recently of others, has led her to the examination of the female self portrait tradition in Mexico, as well other Conceptualist ideas. Unlike the celebrated painted biographical testimonies of mejicanas like Frida Kahlo, Castillo’s work undermines the assumption that portraits inherently contain some sort of psychological revelation. She makes impersonal studies, of herself and her sitters that impede viewers from easily interpreting them and assigning an inner revelation. It is both a challenge to the tradition of portraiture, and the artificiality of its representation, as well as the Hispano-Catholic legacy of transcendental spirituality. Her influences include the German tradition of topological photography as well the interest in the use of materials in conveying meaning, in particular in relation to the body. Her works include the use of woven material, and the literal painting of human flesh on video, and all levels of technological "sophistication" in between. In an attempt to upset conventional definitions of "subject" and "signified," Castillo presents an installation of nine photographs of mimetically painted male body parts. By appearing to be photographic documentation of individual paintings of body parts, this series entitled Hombres Pintados creates a space of ambiguity in both subject, medium, as well as possible interpretation. Castillo has had solo exhibitions at Ace Gallery, Los Angeles, the Museo de Arte Moderno, Bogota, and the Museo Carillo Gil, Mexico City entitled Yo es un Otro. Her group shows include: Cinco Continentes y Una Ciudad at the Mexico City Museum, 1998; Mexico Eterno: Arte y Permanencia at the Palacio de Bells Artes, Mexico City. Sources:
Christopher Knight, "Portraitist takes Conceptual Route out of Predicament." L.A. Times, 1/12/00.
Ace Gallery, L.A., Press Release for Monica Castillo’s exhibition "Painted Men and Self Portraits," 2000.
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