The American University Museum To Show Contemporary Mexican Art

Written by Angela Rumboldt Sunday, 22 May 2011 23:18

Washington, D.C.- The American University Museum in Washington D.C. presents "Registro 02, Mirar por segunda vez (Record 02: A Second Glance)" from June 4th through August 14th. Organized by the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Monterrey (MARCO), "Registro 02" brings together over fifty works by four outstanding artists from Mexico; Adrián Procel, Oswaldo Ruiz, Ramiro Martínez Plasencia, Rubén Gutiérrez and the collective, Tercerunquinto, whose three members include Julio Castro Carreón, Gabriel Cázares Salas, and Rolando Flores Tovar. Working in a diverse range of media these artists uniquely explore the language of art and the active role the spectator plays in creating its meaning.

The exhibition is a reflection on an approach to art that makes the viewer active. It encourages and facilitates awareness of the perception by the individual artistic language that the artists have developed. The work of Adrian Procel has the ability to make the viewer stop and rummage through their memories and mood. Proctor makes his works a subtle visual poem of images everyday. Ruben Gutierrez's work ranges from criticizing the media and the development of reformulated projects images from the film, advertising, and even popular pamphlets. Oswaldo Ruiz is an artist known for intellectual support their work in a thorough investigation and produce images of high conceptual and visual interest to put strain on the language of photography. An architect by profession, Ruiz demonstrated an interest in the building atmospheres based on the architecture. Ramiro Martinez Plasencia has developed its own style of approaching drawing and painting depicting scenes populated with characters based on comic books in which the public can be reflected. The current work Tercerunquinto group, formed by Julio Castro Carreon, Gabriel Cazares and Rolando Flores, focuses on exploring and changing the meaning and identity of international organizations such as spaces for art and to question the ways in which art, and practice, institutionalized.


The American University Museum is located in the Katzen Arts Center at the American University in Washington, DC. It is a three-story, 30,000-square-foot (2,800 m2) museum and sculpture garden located within the university’s Katzen Arts Center. The region’s largest university facility for exhibiting art, the museum’s permanent collection highlights the holdings of the Katzen and Watkins collection. Rotating exhibitions emphasize regional, national, and international contemporary art. The Katzen Arts Center, named for Washington area benefactors Dr. and Mrs. Cyrus Katzen, brings visual and performing arts programs at AU into one space. Designed to foster interdisciplinary collaboration in the arts, the Katzen includes the museum, the Abramson Family Recital Hall, the Studio Theatre, a dance studio, an electronics studio, rehearsal space, and classrooms. The Katzen Collection is a private collection from Dr. Cyrus and Myrtle Katzen. It was donated to the university in 2005. The collection comprises more than 300 artworks, including paintings, prints, drawings, and sculpture. The Katzen Collection has a several focuses: Pop Art, Washington art, and glass sculpture. Larry Rivers, Red Grooms, and Roy Lichtenstein are prominent in the collection, as well as Washington artists Gene Davis, Sam Gilliam, and Bill Willis. The Katzen Collection also contains three large bronze sculptures by Nancy Graves, one of which is a working clock. This extraordinary gift was inspired by Myrtle Katzen's love of the art department which she discovered through taking classes at the university. She found great support in painting with a group of alumni artists in the AU studios. The museum also houses the Watkins Collection which contains more than 4400 works of art, including paintings, prints, drawings, and sculpture focuses on twentieth century art, with a special emphasis on Washington area art produced since the 1940s. The Watkins Collection was created in 1945 as a memorial to C. Law Watkins, the former chair of the Department of Art at American University.The collection has grown through generous donations from collectors and judicious management by the studio art faculty. William Calfee, Ben Summerford, Luciano Penay, and Ron Haynie, all former members of the painting faculty, provided direction and care for a collection that has grown from 25 original donations to over 4,500 artworks today. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.american.edu/cas/museum

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