Written by Harvey Bilderstein Sunday, 19 February 2012 00:44

New York City.- The Bronx Museum of the Arts is pleased to present “Juan Downey: The Invisible Architect”, on view at the museum through May 20th. The exhibition brings together more than 100 works from Downey’s expansive career, from his early experimental work with art and technology to his groundbreaking video art from the 1970s through the 1990s, the exhibition will include drawings, paintings, video and photographic installations, and the artist’s notebooks, which have never before been on view. “Downey revolutionized the field of video art and pioneered an  art form that has had continued relevance for contemporary artists working today,” said Bronx Museum of the Arts Director Holly Block. “As a Chilean, Downey maintained a connection with Latin American culture throughout the many decades he lived and worked in New York.  These dual influences give his work a special resonance with the Bronx Museum and with our community. In addition, Downey has exhibited at the Bronx Museum before, making this exhibition a homecoming of sorts.”Formally trained as an architect, Downey began experimenting with different art forms when he moved from Paris to Washington DC in 1965. He developed a strong interest in the concept of invisible energy and shifted from object-based artistic practice to an experiential approach, seeking to combine interactive performance with sculpture and video, a transition the exhibition explores. Downey quickly established himself as an avant-garde pioneer of video and technology art and for the next two decades began to explore invisible forms of energy and communication, describing himself as a ‘cultural communicant’ and an ‘activating anthropologist.’ “Juan Downey: The Invisible Architect” will feature two of Downey’s best known series: Video Trans Americas (VTA), begun in the late 1960s; and The Thinking Eye, begun in the 1970s. VTA features footage of indigenous people he met on his journey through North and South America. The Thinking Eye  is a two-part work that includes  Las Meninas (1975) a meditation on Diego Velazquez’s masterwork of the same title, and The Looking Glass (1981), which explores the idea of reflection in western art, including in Holbein’s Ambassadors and Velazquez’s Las Meninas. Both Video Trans Americas and The Thinking Eye series highlight Downey’s preoccupation with political discourse, the self, the history of art, western civilization, and Latin American identity. Both works evidence his fascination with identity –his own as well as that of the various indigenous cultures he encountered – and his attempt to understand his identity within the context of western culture.
Juan Downey was born in Santiago, Chile in 1940. He studied architecture at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. Following his studies, he lived in Paris for four years where he studied printmaking at Stanley William Hayter’s Atelier 17. In 1965 Downey moved to the United States, and settled permanently in New York City in 1969, where he lived until his death in 1993. He was an associate professor in both the School of Architecture and the media department at the Pratt Institute. Solo exhibitions featuring Juan Downey’s work include Juan Downey: Audio-Kinetic Electronic Sculptures, The Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington DC; With Energy Beyond These Walls, Howard Wise Gallery, New York, NY, (1970); Video Trans Americas, Contemporary Art Museum, Houston, TX, (1976); Juan Downey: Video Trans Americas, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, (1976); Video Trans Americas, Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY (1977); Juan Downey: New American Filmmaker Series, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY (1978); Juan Downey, Matrix/Berkeley 16, University Art Museum, Berkeley, CA (1978); Une Forêt ‘Videoformes’: Retrospective Juan Downey, Festival de la Création Vidéo, Clermont-Ferrand, France (1993); Juan Downey: Instalaciones, Dibujos y Videos, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Santiago (1995), Chile; Juan Downey: Con energía más allá de estos muros, Institut Valencià d’Art Modern, Centre del Carme,Valencia, Spain (1997-98); Retrospectiva de Video Arte de Juan Downey, Museo de Arte Moderno de Chiloé, Castro, Chiloé, Chile (2000); Plateau of Humankind, Honorable Mention: “Excellence in Art Science and Technology,” 49th Venice Biennale Chilean Pavilion, Venice, Italy (2001); and Juan Downey: El ojo pensante, Sala de Arte Fundación Telefónica, Santiago, Chile (2010). Downey’s work was included in numerous group exhibitions including Involving Technical Materials and Processes, organized by Experiments in Art and Technology, in collaboration with the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY and The Museum of Modern Art New York, NY (1968); New Learning Spaces & Places, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN (1974);  Whitney Biennial Exhibition, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY (1975, 1977, 1981, 1983, 1985, 1987, 1989, 1991); Documenta 6, Kassel,Germany, (1977); Venice Biennale, US Pavilion, Venice, Italy, (1980); Sydney Biennale, Sydney, Australia, (1982); II Bienal de La Habana, Havana, Cuba, (1986); The Thinking Eye, International Center for Photography, New York, NY, (1987);  Passages de l’image, Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France, (1990);  Video Art: The First 25 Years, The Museum of Modern Art, and The American Federation of Arts, New York, NY, (1995); Info Art ’95, Kwangu Biennial, Gwangju, Korea, (1995); Electronic Highways, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, (1997); and Rational/Irrational, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Germany, (2008-2009).The flagship cultural institution of the Bronx, founded in 1971, The Bronx Museum of the Arts focuses on 20th-century and contemporary art, while serving the culturally diverse populations of the Bronx and the greater New York metropolitan area. The museum’s home on the Grand Concourse is a distinctive contemporary landmark designed by the internationally-renowned firm Arquitectonica. The Bronx Museum of the Arts maintains a permanent collection of 20th and 21st-century works by artists of African, Asian, and Latin American ancestry. Additionally, the Museum collects works by artists for whom the Bronx has been critical to their artistic practice and development. The Museum’s educational offerings spring from these central programs with outreach to children and families as well as adult audiences. In its first decade, The Bronx Museum of the Arts was housed in the public rotunda of the Bronx County Courthouse located on Grand Concourse and 161st Street. In 1982, it moved five blocks north on the Concourse to 165th street into a former synagogue purchased and donated by the City of New York.As part of the Museum’s initiative to expand the scope of its youth and family programs, it began an ambitious capital project to enhance its facility. In February 2004, The Museum began construction on a 16,000 sq. ft. building to the north of the existing facility. Its design by the Miami-based firm Arquitectonica was awarded the “Excellence in Design” prize by The Art Commission of the City of New York in 2003. The $19 million space opened in October 2006 and features a major gallery, flexible events / program spaces, an outdoor terrace, and an entire floor dedicated to education programs and classrooms. Plans are underway to build a second structure on the existing site along with a moderate-income residential co-op tower (approximately 189 units). With this new expanded facility, it is the Museum’s hope to serve as a cultural leader in the South Bronx and as a catalyst for economic development within the surrounding communities. Visit the museum’s website at … www.bronxmuseum.org.Click on logo below to add this article to your favorite Social Website ~

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