Boca Raton Museum of Art. The World According to Federico Uribe

Sept 21, 2011 through Jan 8, 2012

Colombian conceptual artist Federico Uribe is known for his fascinating transformation of everyday objects into art. Uribe creates sculptures which are constructed and woven in all kinds of ways, curious and unpredictable, intricate and compulsive. Individual works and whole-room installations are made entirely out of common everyday objects like thousands of shoes, colored pencils and shoelaces.

Included in the exhibition will be works from Uribe’s 2008 Animal Farm, a huge installation containing a life-sized farmer family made of colored pencils, with flies hovering above, framed images on the walls, and a flock of birds in flight across the “sky”. Several farm animals-creatures created from an assortment of objects, from clothes hangers to corks, pencils, sneaker soles, screwed-in pieces of wood and mop heads will also be included. Additionally, the exhibition will debut Uribe’s new work: several life-sized palm trees made from the spines and fanned pages of books, and gardens constructed of gardening tools.

Uribe’s art-making is a labor-intensive, repetitive and compulsive process which re-envisions how the world around us is perceived. Uribe introduces irony, humor, childhood memories and fantasy in his work, with a fresh association of materials and ideas. He transforms the objects of daily life into new objects that have different significance, appearance and texture. Once the viewer gets past the “wow” factor of the work, Federico Uribe’s world entices the viewer to physically experience and complete the work by interacting with it in a personal way.

Born in Bogota in 1962, Uribe has lived and worked in Miami for several years. He studied art at the University of Los Andes in Bogota and in 1988 left for New York to study under Luis Camnitzer, before moving to Miami. He has received international recognition with exhibits in New York City, Italy, Spain, Mexico and Germany. Federico Uribe is currently represented by Now Contemporary Gallery, located in Miami’s Wynwood Art District.

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