Futuro Modular at Rachel Uffner Gallery

Artists: ASMA, Rebecca Adorno, Nobutaka Aozaki, Básica TV, Antoine Carbonne, Guanina Cotto, Dalton Gata, Jorge González, Alejandro Lafontant, Adriana Martinez, Natalia Martínez, Mariana Murcia, Las Nietas de Nonó, Kenny Rivero, Chemi Rosado-Seijo, Claudia Peña Salinas, Manuel Mendoza Sánchez, Curtis Talwst Santiago, Gabriella Torres-Ferrer, Jose Luis Vargas

Exhibition title: Futuro Modular

Curated by: Christopher Rivera

Presented by: EMBAJADA

Venue: Rachel Uffner Gallery, New York, US

Date: November 10, 2019 – February 23, 2020

Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artists and Rachel Uffner Gallery, New York

Embajada presents Futuro Modular, a group exhibition curated by Christopher Rivera.

The portrayal of the future in western culture is in constant flux, an ongoing imaginary construction, assembled by memories or ideas of what that future could look like. The once technicolor optimism of the sixties and seventies which included visiting aliens, flying cars or a holiday to Mars gives way to a more cynical and imaginative vision of the future, rendered in muted tones of sepia or dark silver green. Ridley Scott’s 1982 dystopian science fiction film Blade Runner, set in what was imagined to be our present day, November 2019, featured flying cars, intelligent robots, a crumbling climate and an existential crisis. While this vision of the future still feels farfetched, we find ourselves inching closer to this imagined future. Video calls, 3D printing, and automatic cars are technologies current today that seemed impossible only fifteen years ago, meanwhile urgent climate changes threaten the earth’s survival. As Albert Einstein stated, “I never think of the future, it comes soon enough.”

Futuro Modular brings together a varied group of artists that help to create a fictional DIY experience and installation that ruminates on the idea of future. The exhibition uses the second floor of the gallery as an imaginary spaceship, a vehicle idea that inherently bears the marks of a progressive society. A spaceship’s contents, in this case the artworks, as well as the motives of its occupants, the artists, imagine an ambiguous and open-ended future, suspending absolute terms of salvation and destruction.

Text by Christopher Rivera

Futuro Modular, 2019-2020, exhibition view, Rachel Uffner Gallery, New York

Básica TV, SPYDER, 2017, video, 2:00 minutes

Alejandro Lanfontant, Untitled, 2019, textile, dimensions variable

Antoine Carbonne, soft speed, 2019, acrylic, pencil, posca and oil paint on canvas, 12 x 9 1/2 inches, (30.5 x 24.1 cm)

Antoine Carbonne, untitled (angry), 2019, brush pen, india ink and acrylic on canvas, 8 x 6 inches, (20.3 x 15.2 cm)

Antoine Carbonne, my kind of dog, 2019, pencil and pastel on canvas, 8 x 6 inches, (20.3 x 15.2 cm)

Gabriella Torres Ferrer, Co2 Marketvalue 003 (Green Cola), 2019, aluminum can, live Co2 market value display, 9 volt battery, 4 3/4 x 4 3/4 x 3 inches, (12.1 x 12.1 x 7.6 cm)

Gabriella Torres Ferrer, Marketvalue 005 (Energy drink), 2019, aluminum can, live cryptocurrency market value display, 9 volt battery, 12 3/4 x 4 x 3 inches, (32.4 x 10.2 x 7.6 cm)

Gabriella Torres Ferrer, BTC £, 2019, British money, live cryptocurrency market value display, 9 volt battery, 2 1/2 x 2 1/2 x 4 inches, (6.4 x 6.4 x 10.2 cm)

Gabriella Torres Ferrer, Personal Data Mine 001 (Credit Card), 2018, credit card, microcontroller display with Facebook targeted ad categories, 9 volt battery, 8 x 5 1/4 x 1 inches, (20.3 x 13.3 x 2.5 cm)

Gabriella Torres Ferrer, Isn’t the World Just a Great Big Pyramid Scheme (Allow), 2019, electroluminescent panel, electric cord and plug, 4 1/4 x 8 inches, (10.8 x 20.3 cm)

ASMA, filtro, 2019, graphite, oil painting on handmade unfired adobe, acrylic box frame, 11 1/2 x 14 1/2 x 4 inches, (29.2 x 36.8 x 10.2 cm)

Dalton Gata, Untitled, 2019, acrylic on canvas, 28 x 23 inches, (71.1 x 58.4 cm)

Guanina Cotto, Buenas Noticias en el 2093, 2019, mixed media, framed: 17 x 21 inches, (43.2 x 53.3 cm)

Kenny Rivero, Llevame Contigo (Let Me Find Out), 2019, oil on canvas, 30 x 35 inches, (76.2 x 88.9 cm)

Jorge González, Calendario Antillano (Antillean Calendar), 2016, digital photograph mounted in wooden frame, 15 1/2 x 13 1/2 x 1 inches, (39.4 x 34.3 x 2.5 cm)

Las Nietas de Nonó, la evolisyon machin, 2019, mixed media, dimensions variable

Claudia Peña Salinas, UNAM, 2018, inkjet monoprint on wax panel, 20 x 16 inches, (50.8 x 40.6 cm)

Claudia Peña Salinas, Tlaloc, 2018, inkjet monoprint on wax panel, 20 x 16 inches, (50.8 x 40.6 cm)

Mariana Murcia, Save As, 2017, mixed media, 39 x 5 1/2 x 3 inches, (99.1 x 14 x 7.6 cm)

Rebecca Adorno, The heat death of the universe, 2019, cement, mycelium, Plexiglas display, case with MDF, 10 1/2 x 16 3/4 x 6 1/2 inches, (26.7 x 42.5 x 16.5 cm)

Curtis Talwst Santiago, Elk and Zebra embrace while reaching simultaneous climax, 2017, mixed media diorama in reclaimed jewelry box, 3 1/2 x 3 x 3 1/2 inches, (8.9 x 7.6 x 8.9 cm)

Chemi Rosado-Seijo, G Orwell (History on Wheels), 2019, book mounted on wheels, 4 x 7 1/2 x 4 1/2 inches, (10.2 x 19.1 x 11.4 cm)

Nobutaka Aozaki, Lucky Competitive Cats, 2016/2019, fortune cat statues, wooden pedestals, thread, and bill, AA batteries, 15 x 9 x 14 inches, (38.1 x 22.9 x 35.6 cm)

ASMA, the mirror itself, 2019, pyrographed banak wood, filled with pine, mahogany and walnut wood fillers, copper inserts with tin, 13 1/2 x 19 x 1 inches, (34.3 x 48.3 x 2.5 cm)

Adriana Martinez, Soft Drink, 2019, mixed media, 17 x 15 x 15 inches, (43.2 x 38.1 x 38.1 cm)

Manuel Mendoza Sánchez, In a Matter of Time, 2019, concrete, printed images, acrylic paint, sealed with car resin, 10 x 9 1/2 x 9 1/2 inches, (25.4 x 24.1 x 24.1 cm)

Jose Luis Vargas, y ahora que hago con ella?, 2019, oil on canvas, 84 x 76 inches, (213.4 x 193 cm)