March 22 to April 19, 2003
Opening reception: Saturday, March 22, 2003, 7-9pm

Casas Riegner Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of new work by Eugenio Espinoza and Danilo Dueñas. This is an important culmination of an ongoing dialogue between these unusual artists. Espinoza and Dueñas first showed together in 1990 in the exhibition “Latinoamerica presenta” (Latin America presents) at the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Santiago de Chile. Since then, the two artists have been in constant communication, debating and dialoging over the changing nature of art.

The similarities between these artists’ work is obvious, and not surprisingly their philosophies compliment one another. Both create works from inexpensive disposable materials that are not normally associated with fine art. Espinoza frequently uses chalkboards, string, old rags, and plaster shards. Dueñas is fonder of wood and Formica. And although both create chaotic works, Dueñas’ compositions are more geometrically arranged. There is an almost obsessive Mondrianic order to his works.

Espinoza on the other hand basks in a zenith of disorder and child’s play.Eugenio Espinoza uses paint, but does not make” paintings;” he constructs and deconstructs within the same work. He combines text and images that are not conventionally correlated and paints them on non-traditional materials that loosely resemble canvas. The results cause us to reflect that a work of art is much more than the information or emotion, which its physical qualities provoke.

Danilo Dueñas uses found materials to construct outsized installations that expand throughout the space of the gallery. His work traps and preserves space, while intruding upon the viewer’s capacity to move and freely experience his or her surroundings. For Hump the artists have enclosed the gallery behind six large panels of wood, isolating the visitors from the outside and concealing the exhibition from the pedestrian’s view. Espinoza rejects all the standards of a commercial gallery space by placing his works on the ground and in unexpected places throughout the interior. Dueñas contributes sculpture-paintings and a mural-sized wall composition in the center wall of the gallery that makes use of the most unexpected materials, including foam board and objects he found on the streets of the Miami Design District.

Dueñas and Espinoza have produced an unforgettable show that defies all conventions of a commercial gallery. It is the combining force of both artists’ works that will alarm and confound almost any viewer. In short, Hump will have you wondering whether you have stepped into a gallery or a danger zone.

Apart from “Latin America presents” Espinoza and Dueñas have shown together twice before in collective museum shows: Mesotica, The America Non-Representativa, at the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design in San Jose, Costa Rica and Transatlantica, The America-Europa Non-Representativa at the Alejandro Otero Museum in Caracas. Espinoza has exhibited internationally and is represented in numerous important collections, including the Museum of Fine Arts, Caracas, the Cisneros collection, Valentina and Ignacio Oberto collection, Alfonso Pons collection, Bernard Chappard and William H. Luers collections. He currently works in Miami as a fulltime artist and is a contributing editor for ArtNexus ,El Nacional. and Arte al Dia. Dueñas has had several solo shows at home and abroad and has work in many prestigious collections such as the Museum of Modern Art, Rio de Janeiro, The Museum of Fine Arts, Caracas, Alfonso Pons collection and the Cisneros collection.