XI FROM THE SERIES – NIMBLE AND SINISTER TRICKS (TO BE PRESERVED WITH OUT SCANDAL AND CORRUPTION) | GABRIEL RICO

XI From the series – Agile and sinister tricks (to be preserved without scandal and corruption) is the artwork of Gabriel Rico, Mexican artist who, by assembling different objects and materials, creates visual rebus that speak of the natural system, man and the history of the world. As the title itself suggests, the work uses of a series of more or less declared tricks that come to compose poetic and mysterious assemblages in which the found object is combined with materials chosen by the artist.

A large glass plate, a distant memory of Marche Duchamp’s Mariée mise à nu par ses célibataires, même, holds up with a series of interlocking objects of all kinds: a ball, neon, a purple bulb, ping pong balls, a can of an empty energy drink and plastic life preservers. Also in the title Rico suggests that we do not need to worry about the effect that these free associations could cause, there is neither shame nor complexity. The artist seems to suggest reading the work as it is possible, without feeling the pressure to solve it but appreciating the connections between dimensions that are so distant from each other.

By creating a union between philosophical analogies and scientific principles, through images and metaphors, Gabriel Rico makes sculpture a place where the past (our identity and our human waste), the present (our condition and needs) and the future (our intentions and the consequences of our actions) meet. Each objects and their relationship seem to release a series of questions and affirmations: the familiar object takes on a new face, everyday life is presented under a new perspective.

After having trained in architecture, in which different elements and materials must be combined with each other with the aim of creating a coherent and resistant structure, Gabriel Rico brings out these characteristics in the artistic work that constitute in XI From the series – Nimble and sinister tricks (to be preserved with out scandal and corruption) a philosophical construction of thoughts in which the complexity of the natural and human system founds a visual identity. There is no beginning and end but an infinite cycle of postponements and returns. The word axiom is imprinted on the plate: Rico’s deductions are a principle that can be welcomed in its mystery and beauty.

Gabriel Rico
XI From the series – Nimble and sinister tricks (to be preserved with out scandal and corruption)
Different objects, glass, mirror, brass and neon, 205 x 115 x 24 cm | 80 11/16 x 45 1/4 x 9 7/16 inch.
© Courtesy the artist and Perrotin

04/03/2023