Victoria Cabezas and Priscilla Monge: Give Me What You Ask For

NEW YORK, Jan. 23, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Americas Society is pleased to present Victoria Cabezas and Priscilla Monge: Give Me What You Ask For, curated by Miguel A. López (Chief Curator of TEOR/éTica and Lado V, San José, Costa Rica). The exhibition is the first to bring together the work of Victoria Cabezas (b. 1950) and Priscilla Monge (b. 1968), two Costa Rican artists from different generations.

"This exhibition, carefully organized by the Peruvian critic Miguel López and produced in close collaboration with TEOR/éTica, a solid and pioneering contemporary art organization in Central America, captures the essence of two artists' experimental proposals that have mapped the Costa Rican context from their distinctive perspectives of the body", stated Gabriela Rangel, director and chief curator of Visual Arts. "López, who leads TEOR/éTica, chose to present two extraordinary artists whose contrasting outlooks converge at the core of art in the twenty-first century: sexuality and gender."

The exhibition explores how the two artists have challenged conventional art disciplines, including painting and sculpture, by drawing on their own lived experiences. Monge and Cabezas both use experimental artistic strategies to advocate for women and to critique established patriarchal structures.

"Pondering Cabezas and Monge's paths helps us understand how the critical infrastructure in Central America has changed during the last four decades," said Miguel A. López. "It also helps us recognize genealogies that show that women were, to a large extent, the catalysts for change in terms of the boundaries of the region's contemporary art."

Cabezas has experimented with photography to explore issues associated with exotification and interventionism in Central American political economy and formulated a criticism of gender constructions in popular culture, mass media and telenovelas. She is represented in the exhibition with works from the beginning of her career in the early 1970s through the 1980s. In Sin título (Untitled) (1973); El banano emplumado (The feathered banana) (1973); and En el bosque 1 (In the forest 1) (1973), Cabezas addresses with humor the politics of bananas -an essential aspect to the understanding of the political economy and international relations in the region. At the same time, the banana alludes to sexual desire, the commodification of bodies, and the interdependence between the construction of masculinity and concepts such as consumption and exploitation.

From 1983, the exhibition will show Cabeza's series Mujeres, gatos y televisores (Women, cats, and televisions), which critically explores through photographs the rhythms of television and women's everyday lives. Here, she uses her own body and her private space to reflect how soap opera meets the socio-cultural needs of women feeling isolated at home.

"Give Me What You Ask For allows me to revisit and rethink my own work in new light, through the dialogue created between Priscilla´s work and mine by the show's curatorial scrutiny," commented Victoria Cabezas.

Even though she started as a painter, Priscilla Monge is a post-medium artist who has questioned how gender hierarchies condition social spaces and sought to reveal the entwinement of love and aggression.

In the late-1990s and early-2000s, Monge started using sanitary napkins to create a series of powerful objects, photographs, installation, and performances. During those years, Monge created soccer balls made out of menstrual pads, defying the patriarchal constructions ascribed to a dominant gender to specific sport disciplines (soccer). On the other hand, the material used embodies the taboo prescribed to women to keep their menstruation hidden and silenced. Some of the works by Monge included in Give Me What You Ask For are Pelota de fútbol (Soccer ball) (1997); Huevos de oro (Golden eggs) (1998); Bloody Day (1998).

"It is important to note that during the 1990s most cultural initiatives in Central America were being led by women, most of the artistic production of the time was also made by women. As artists we were not oblivious, we had very important things to say, and to make visible," said Priscilla Monge. "This is being acknowledged by significant institutions, like Americas Society and others, by presenting, showing and learning about and from relevant works made by artists outside the mainstream."

The exhibition Victoria Cabezas and Priscilla Monge: Give Me What You Ask For is made possible by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

Additional support is provided by the Export Promotion Agency of Costa Rica, PROCOMER, and by Mex-Am Cultural Foundation, the Smart Family Foundation of New York, Judko Rosenstock, The Cowles Charitable Trust, and an anonymous donor. This exhibition and publication received in kind support from TEOR/éEtica, San José, Costa Rica.

Americas Society gratefully acknowledges the support from the Arts of the Americas Circle members: Estrellita Brodsky; Galería Almeida e Dale; Kaeli Deane; Diana Fane; Alexandra García; Isabella Hutchinson; Carolina Jannicelli; Vivian Pfeiffer and Jeanette van Campenhout, Phillips; Roberto Redondo; Erica Roberts; Sharon Schultz; Herman Sifontes; Axel Stein; Edward J. Sullivan; and Juan Yarur Torres.

PUBLIC PROGRAMS

ON VIEW:
February 13 through May 4, 2019
Americas Society
680 Park Avenue
New York, NY 10065
Gallery Hours:
Wednesday to Saturday
12:00 to 6:00 p.m.
Free admission

VISITA DE PRENSA:
February 12
10:00 AM
Americas Society
RSVP: [email protected]

PANEL DISCUSSION: Ask For What You Want
Wednesday, February 13, 2019 
4:30 – 6:00 PM
Americas Society
Leading up to the same-day exhibition opening, curator Miguel A. López (Co-Director and Chief Curator, TEOR/éTica) and artists Victoria Cabezas and Priscilla Monge introduce Victoria Cabezas and Priscilla Monge: Give Me What You Ask For in a panel discussion. Moderated by Gabriela Rangel (Director and Chief Curator of Visual Arts, Americas Society).
Free admission – Registration is required

EXHIBITION OPENING
Wednesday, February 13, 2019
6:30 – 8:30 PM
Americas Society

BOOK LAUNCH AND PANEL DISCUSSION: The Noisemakers; Estridentismo, Vanguardism, and Social Action in Post-Revolutionary Mexico
Thursday, February 21, 2019
6:30 – 8:30 PM
Americas Society
Book launch and discussion between the author Lynda Klich (Assistant Professor of Art History, Hunter College, CUNY), Luis Carranza (Adjunct Associate Professor, Columbia University GSAPP and Professor, Roger Williams University) Mary K. Coffey (Associate Professor of Art History, Dartmouth College), moderated by Edward J. Sullivan (Deputy Director and Professor, The Institute of Fine Arts, New York University).
Free admission – Registration is required

PANEL DISCUSSION: From Global Feminisms to Radical Women: Building a Feminist Archive
Tuesday, March 12, 2019
6:30 - 8:30 PM
Americas Society
Panel discussion with Andrea Geyer (artist and Associate Professor of New Genres, The New School), Catherine Morris (Sackler Senior Curator, Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, Brooklyn Museum), and Diamond Stingily (artist and poet).
Free admission – Registration is required

PANEL DISCUSSION: Networks of Experimental Photography
Thursday, March 28, 2019
6:30 - 8:30 PM
Americas Society
Panel discussion with Claudia Joskowicz (artist and assistant professor of art, Wellesley College), Maria Antonella Pelizzari (professor of nineteenth and twentieth century history of photography, Hunter College, CUNY) moderated by Diana Flatto (assistant curator, Americas Society). The discussion will aim to situate Costa Rican artist Victoria Cabezas within the development of experimental photography and feminism since the 1970s.
Free admission – Registration is required

Visit as-coa.org/visualarts for more details on all public programs.

Americas Society is the premier organization dedicated to education, debate, and dialogue in the Americas. Established by David Rockefeller in 1965, our mission is to foster an understanding of the contemporary political, social, and economic issues confronting Latin America, the Caribbean, and Canada, and to increase public awareness and appreciation of the diverse cultural heritage of the Americas and the importance of the inter-American relationship. Americas Society Visual Arts program boasts the longest-standing private space in the United States dedicated to exhibiting and promoting art from Latin America, the Caribbean, and Canada; it has achieved a unique and renowned leadership position in the field, producing both historical and contemporary exhibitions.

SOURCE Americas Society

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