How many times have you paused to see the sunset and revel in its beauty; to give thanks for the day as that omnipresent light leaves once again? You take a picture of the colors in the sky, text it to your loved one, or post it on your socials. But once that ball of yellow slips under the horizon line, do you stay until it all fades away, and the deep, somber hues of twilight take over? Maybe you’re a morning person and are used to seeing the sky before the sun illuminates it. You get ready to go for a run as you listen to the silence that accompanies the rebirth of the world, embracing its fresh energy. Whether it’s the beginning or the end of the day, these serve as a reminder of nature’s wonder despite our many responsibilities; piercing through windows and bouncing on the concrete walls we walk in and out of every day.
Presented recently at NADA’s Exhibition Space in Chinatown, Concordia’s group show 5:59 explored the final minute before dusk or dawn, embracing the anticipation and transformation these events exude. The 6 Colombian artists displayed share in a patient, expanded study of a seasonless landscape. Working out of longitudes and latitudes near the equator, the sun rises and falls at the same hour and minute all year long. Taking advantage of this unique environment to continuously reflect on the bi-daily phenomena we sometimes take for granted, they implement the unraveling of subjects and materials as well as experimentation with scale and color to produce new perspectives that deal with memory, identity, and relationship to place. While they all happened to be at different stages of their careers, the curators observed unspoken conversations between them with each studio visit and phone call. This organic process developed the exhibition’s central theme: a reflection of the intergenerational dialogue occurring within Colombian art.
In Alejandro Sintura Castro’s A través de la ventana, 2024, the figurative rendition of an open window captures one’s intimate encounter with the expanse of nature that calls us from the other side. Difficult to make out its contents and shapes, the darkness radiates dimly in stark contrast to the overhead fixtures lighting the inside of the room evenly, inviting the viewer’s eyes to pierce into its seductive, limitless mystery and uncertainty. Sintura, who graduated this year from Javeriana University in Bogotá, translates the state of transformation that twilight evokes into his paintings of the same, blurring the line between objective documentation and subjective remembrance. This study of the sky is further zoomed in through Horizonte, 2024, a diptych positioned at a corner of the gallery walls–as if persuading the audience’s accepting the invitation into the deep blues of the sky. Focusing on a similar time of day, Ana Mosseri’s work projects these scenes of twilight further within the space of abstraction. In Tardes de perro en el campo, variations 1-3 2022, Mosseri depicts the aimless movement of dogs in the night, redolent of the way we interact with our environments at night: open to improvisation, slowly seeking our next move, not driven by exterior factors. The triptych stretches out the various bands of blue that occur within this short period, compressing them into the three frames, unveiling and encapsulating the enchantment that’s embedded in this quiet setting. Other works further push the agendas of color theory and abstraction, such as Juan Rodriguez’ Flor Azul, 2024, which is reminiscent of Rothko’s approach to color as a contemplation of the accumulated points in time and objects that interact within an environment, and Teresa Sanchez’ sculptures, who’s masterful manipulation of wood native to her environment create miniature forests and rainfalls, speaking to the enduring yet preciousness nature of our environments while creating an interplay of 3-D structures and their shadows as they inhabit a gallery space.
Ana Mosseri, Tarde de perros en el campo I (variación #1-3), 2022, oil on canvas, 59 x 47 inch | 150 x 120 cm.
Concordia’s exhibition offers a timely window into current art practices in Colombia, allowing these artists to collectively present their works to diasporic communities and new audiences in New York City. As the sun sets earlier each day with the coming winter solstice, 5:59 offers warmth, varying perspectives, and space for reflection on the beauty that awaits us on the other side of winter.
05:59 presented by Concordia
Curated by Danielle Juliao and Martin Isaza
NADA East Broadway – 311 East Broadway, 2nd Floor.
October 17th to November 7th, 2024
Participating Artists: Alejandro Sintura, Ana Mosseri, Juan Rodriguez, Luisa Montoya, Margarita Gutierrez, and Teresa Sánchez.
