Federico Ovalles Venezuelan, b. 1972

Federico Ovalles has a unique language that stems from the historical and social framework of his Venezuelan origin, common to a region that was forged under urban utopian promises that...

I am interested in working with divergent ideas between triumphs and failures of Latin American modernity and its consequences, expressed in those areas of the current city that function as "non-city" and in contrast with the architectural majesty of great works that erected the modern Latin American city of the mid-twentieth century. The main axes of my observation and exploration are architecture, geometry, abstractionism and historical constructivism, approaching it beyond tradition, through immediacy, provisionality, spontaneous order and constructive precariousness that so much marks the reality in the present of Latin America. I counterpose dissimilar materials to create pieces of assemblage and installations that reference the architectural in a fragile or provisional way, I also build geometries on fabrics or natural fibers and with materials found in the city.

In our first international art fair participation at Zona Maco 2023, we are proud to convey two of our gallery’s most important messages through the artworks of five of our...

'Ethos' is defined as the 'Set of traits and modes of behavior that make up the character or identity of a person or community.' Ethos is part of the main...

Federico Ovalles was born in Caracas in 1972. During the seventies and eighties, the decades of his growth and artistic training, the city simultaneously witnessed the successes and weaknesses of the promises of modernity.

On the one hand, since the 1950s a large group of Venezuelan artists -from Paris- had taken on with vigor, and much added originality, the avant-garde tendencies affiliated with the experimentation of the European metropolis. But also in that period Caracas was already beginning to witness the failure of those dreams that, on the other hand, can be seen as dreams close to those cherished by many Latin American cities, including Medellín.

Also in artistic events —in the popularity of the various forms of abstractionism— a path advanced that took geometric abstraction to the unusual circuit of boom, popularity, officialization to the point of monumentalization... and disenchantment. From there arises the work of Federico Ovalles, in whose context he appears destroyed, developed mostly in Medellín for this exhibition.

Nydia Gutierrez
curator

Curated by Francisco Arévalo