Darío Escobar: Broken Circle

The Craft & Folk Art Museum presents Darío Escobar: Broken Circle, the first solo museum exhibition in Los Angeles of the Guatemalan artist. Escobar is known for reinventing everyday objects and sports paraphernalia into compelling sculptures that are layered with history and playfulness. Broken Circle is a site-specific wall installation composed of 1,000 red bicycle reflectors, activated by the interplay of light and the visitors' movements through the gallery. The exhibition has been curated by Alma Ruiz, Senior Curator at The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles. Escobar (b.1971) was educated as an architect and art conservator in Guatemala and Spain before exchanging his training for a career in visual art. His groundbreaking early work included gilded consumer objects, such as a McDonald's paper cup, and silver repoussé sports equipment including skateboards. This conflation of industrial objects with religious imagery using colonial silversmithing techniques formed his initial visual investigations into the impact of middle-class consumerism, material culture, and mass production on Guatemalan society. In recent years, Escobar's work has shifted into larger-scale installations composed from the accumulation and repetition of sports objects, including bicycle tires, soccer balls, and billiard sticks. The multi-dimensional motion of lines and the gesture of drawing inform these installations, which curator Alma Ruiz refers to as drawing-sculptures. Broken Circle follows Escobar's recent trajectory of drawing-sculptures, as he generates a new work conceived entirely from the color, form, and behavior of the red bicycle reflectors. Echoing the kinetic effects of geometric abstract art, the repeating undulations and rotations of the mural-like wall installation will interact with the light in the space to generate a flickering effect produced by the visitor's own movement through the gallery space. Two floor sculptures, " Crash No. XVI" and "Crash No. XVII" (both 2010), w ill also be exhibited in the gallery space. The shape of each car bumper-turned-sculpture has been determined by the impact the vehicle suffered during an automobile accident. An opening reception will take place on Saturday, May 17 from 7:00 - 9:00 p.m. preceded by a conversation between Darío Escobar and curator Alma Ruiz from 6:00 - 6:30 p.m. The reception is open to the public for a $12 admission fee. CAFAM members will be able to preview Darío Escóbar: Broken Circle on Saturday, May 17 starting at 12:00 p.m. This exhibition is partially supported by the Pasadena Art Alliance.