40 х 70 in. (101.6 x 177.8 cm.)
In this large, compelling photograph, ‘Recital’, Anthony Goicolea sets his fantasy world on the stage of a school auditorium. Here, the woodland scenery provides a backdrop for the flock of sheep that crowd the stage and are accompanied by music from two schoolboys at the piano. Placing himself within the picture as the young boy characters, Goicolea reflects his personal perceptions of the bizarre institutional environments of childhood. Part of Goicolea’s ‘Detention’ series, this c-print image mounted on aluminum demonstrates the artist’s ability to create a vivid impression of reality while maintaining a clear, unsettled state that encourages the viewer to question the supposed truths within the narrative.
Please note, the metal frame on the reverse side is loose along the bottom.
Best known for his elaborately staged photographs and videos featuring the artist in a variety of faces, poses, and settings, Anthony Goicolea (b.1971) questions social norms through tableaus of carousing and mischief. In a similar fashion as Cindy Sherman, Goicolea addresses issues of personal and cultural identity, homosexuality, child sexuality, and feelings of alienation by placing himself within the bodies of adolescent boys, arranged in dense fairy-tale landscapes or institutional locations, to foster an equal sense of reality and discomfort. Born in Atlanta, GA of Cuban decent, Goicolea studied painting, photography, sculpture, and art history at the University of Georgia, earning his BA in 1992 and BFA in 1994. He received his MFA in sculpture with a minor in photography in 1996 from the Pratt Institute in New York. The recipient of the 1997 Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant, Goicolea has been recently honored with the 2005 BMW Photo Paris Award and the 2006 Cintas Fellowship. Recently, his work has been exhibited in solo shows at Galería SENDA, Barcelona, Spain (2012); Postmasters Gallery, New York, NY (2011); North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC (2011); Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, England (2010); Aurel Scheibler / ScheiblerMitte, Berlin, Germany (2010); Ron Mandos Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands (2010); Denver Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver, CO (2009); and Haunch of Venison, London, England (2008).
Selected Public Collections:
The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY
The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC
Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, IL
Museu d´Art Contemporani de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León, Léon, Spain
The Groninger Museum, Groninger, Netherlands