Yoshua Okón
13 August - 16 November 2011
YOSHUA OKÓN
13 August - 16 November, 2011
Mexican artist Yoshua Okón’s videos blur the lines between documentary,
reality, and fiction. He collaborates closely with his actors (often
amateurs who are also the subjects of the work) to create sociological
examinations that ask viewers to contemplate uncomfortable situations
and circumstances. He works with marginalized groups such as pit-bull
owners, Nazi-war memorabilia collectors, and Venice Beach homeless
people, in order to reflect back onto mainstream culture. For this show,
Okón debuts a new two-channel video installation which was produced
during his residency at the Hammer. The work, shot on location at a Los
Angeles Home Depot store, explores the relationships amongst Guatemalan
day laborers who at home fought on opposite sides, yet here in the U.S.
are working together in their efforts to find work.
Yoshua Okón was born in Mexico City in 1970, where he currently lives.
He received his BFA from Conordia University in Montreal, Canada in 1994
and his MFA from University of California, Los Angeles in 2002 with a
Fulbright scholarship. Okón founded the artist-run space La Panadería in
1994 and the artist-run space and school SOMA in 2009, both in Mexico
City. Okón’s work has been presented in one-person exhibitions at Yerba
Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco; Galería Gabriela Mistral in
Santiago, Chile; Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil in Mexico City, Mexico;
Viafarini, Milan, Italy; Armory Center for the Arts, Los Angeles, CA;
Lothringer 13 - Städtische Kunsthalle, Munich, Germany; Galería
Revolver, Lima, Perú; The Project, New York and Los Angeles; Herzeliya
Museum, Herzeliya, Israel; Galleria Francesca Kaufmann in Milan, Italy;
and Art & Public, Geneva, Switzerland. Okón has been included in
numerous thematic exhibitions such as The Workers, Mass MOCA, West
Adams; Amateurs, Wattis Institute for Contemporary Art, San Francisco;
Laughing in a Foreign Language, Hayward Gallery, London, The Age of
Discrepancy, MUCA, Mexico City, Mexico; Mercosur Bienial, Porto Alegre,
Brazil; Pantagruel Syndrome, Torino Triennale, Castello di Rivoli,
Turin, Italy; The Virgin Show, the Wrong Gallery, New York; Adaptive
Behaviour, New Museum, New York; Don’t Call It Performance, Museo Reina
Sofia, Madrid, Spain and Museo del Barrio, New York City; Istanbul
Biennial, Istanbul, Turkey; ICP Triennial, New York; Terror Chic,
Sprüth/Magers, Munich, Germany; and Mexico City: an exhibition about the
exchange rates between bodies and values, PS1, MoMA, New York, and
Kunstwerke, Berlin, Germany.
www.hammer.ucla.edu
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