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Written by Michelle Weinberg
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Page 1 of 2 The artists Alain Guerra and Neraldo de la Paz, known as Guerra de la Paz, have been working as a collaborative unit since 1996. They reside and work in Miami, using the city as a launch pad for a life in art that has an ambitious scope above and beyond the local art milieu. Self-described “outsiders”, they make work scavenged from the material facts of this city. They are married to Miami in this sense, enjoying an intimate relationship of give and take with its jetsam and flotsam, harvesting its refuse, transforming its castoffs into work that is powerful and lyrical, formally challenging and deeply felt.
They are known for their “mounds”, great piles of garments layered in rainbow hues, like Tribute from 2002, which resemble exuberant piles of consumer excrement or ritual formations created by urban tribes of the homeless. “It’s garbage on its way to the landfills, ultimately becoming nature again,” says Neraldo. Their installations of overflowing garments attest to their oceanic range, while other installations are precisely sculpted to relate provocative or joyful narratives in polychrome tableaux vivant.
The collaborative is currently enjoying a very active period in their career, the result of seeking the bigger playing field - thinking globally, rather than locally - and the result of fruitful liaisons with fully operational support professionals. They insist “One of our main interests has been to show outside South Florida.” The same originality and self-determination that characterizes their aesthetic and technical evolution applies to their practical and business decisions.
“Our work is not easily accepted by established galleries.” Says Alain. “We were kind of like a long shot. Hooking up with someone starting out and willing to take a risk has made sense.” Neraldo and Alain emphasize that the relationship they enjoy with their agents is equally a friendship. “For us it’s important to work with anyone who believes in you and loves the work”, Neraldo added. But soon after their first New York solo show at Jack the Pelican gallery in Williamsburg in 2006, the collaborative started getting lot of attention. A featured interview in New York Arts magazine followed in 2007, making it to the magazine cover, and ever since, GDLP has jumped into a national and international ride that has rewarded their several years of commitment to their most deepest believe: Beauty can be uneasy.
During the last Art Basel Miami Beach week, their free-standing sculpture Nine was sold to the British giant Charles Saatchi. Essentially a mound held aloft by individuals, Nine has a strong counter-cultural connotation. It speaks of the triumph of the collective, of a variegated community working in unison, resisting powerful forces - like gravity. It’s ultimately celebratory. Saatchi’s collection, on the other hand, found its notoriety after producing and acquiring the controversial “Sensation” show in the early eighties that included works such as those produced by Damian Hirst and the Chapman Brothers. The collection has grown as to become one of the most polemic / acclaimed contemporary art collections in the world. By looking at GDLP latest productions, it is not difficult to establish the connection.
Their latest solo show was presented at Daneyal Mahmood Gallery in Chelsea, New York, in conjunction with Creative Thriftshop (CTS). Green Zone is a large landscape installation referencing the heavily guarded diplomatic area in central Baghdad where US personnel live and work. In the hands of the artists however - and in the center of New York City - the Green Zone turns into an artistic interpretation - that like in prior installations such as Overflow from 2002 or Oasis from 2006 - aims to one of the most current and controversial American conflicts.
The same installation will be featured as a special installation during Scope New York this March. Other exhibitions of note ahead are the 21C Museum Hotel in Louisville, Kentucky, the CIRCA Fair in Puerto Rico, and the John Michael Kohler Art Center in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. They’ll wrap up the year with residencies in Santander, Spain, and at the Elsewhere Artist Collaborative in Greensboro, NC.
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