Daniel Fiorda & Ro Barragan - October 24 to November 13, 2019

Press Release

Lilac Gallery New York is pleased to present “Typos” an exhibition of works by Daniel Fiorda & Ro Barragan. An intriguing selection of works by two Argentinian artists, from October 24 to November 13, 2019.

Fiorda and Ro’s exhibition “Typos” plays an integral part of our modern lives, linking past and present, old and new, with a subtle irony and criticism. The works become a critical mirror for our post-Industrial society. Fiorda’s works have found a key place in the great currents of Contemporary sculpture, while Barragan stretches her identity in print making, creating large scale works with machines from the early 20th Century. The two artists, originally from Argentina, have a conversation with the past and present in this spirited exhibit, challenging the viewer to connect with their process of creation through new media and technique.

Daniel Fiorda in this new series of sculptures by Daniel Fiorda continues in many ways the themes that have infused his previous work. For the last several years, Fiorda has dealt with technology, obsolescence, with the trail of discarded tech that humanity leaves behind and what it says about us. The new work takes this thematic one step further. These new wall pieces feature barely concealed found objects, almost fully engulfed by concrete, and yet still eerily discernible: industrial gears, computer keyboards , objects that evoke industrial post-digital eras.

The overall sense is dystopian rather than apocalyptic. In Fiorda’s previous work, found objects were displayed as if unearthed from a bed of clay by a tacit anthropologist, perhaps decades into the future. A typewriter would be partially buried by dry soil and weathered by the passing of time. The underlying narrative was that of a future civilization unearthing the objects left by ours. Destruction or extinction were implied. In the new work, the obsolete technology is not found but rather engulfed by a new technology. Concrete, as a material and as a technology, has the capabilities to fully encase and envelope. In Fiorda’s new work, uniformity and the appropriation of old/new technology into new structures suggests a historical and technological challenge right around the corner, mirroring the ones in our recent past: the digital age fully replacing the analog world. These astounding sculptures, with embedded objects, are here to examine closely, and make connections between theme, material, and shape.

In Ro Barragan's latest work we explore a production of typographic posters that seeks to highlight the multiplicity of meanings in everyday messages. Words meet, bifurcate, overlap, amalgamate and juxtapose in speeches and the context of communications. It is in this complex multiplicity, that manifests itself in a printed text, which also functions as an image. The material used is the same as the one historically used in urban advertising posters: the work is developed by using typographic printing methods, with mobile types of wood, in typographic families dating back to the last century. The works of art are printed on sulfite paper of various sizes. The machines of the early 20th century and manual presses of various sizes are used for printing, which still works in historical workshops in Argentina – Pucará printing shop in La Tablada - and in the Ilusión Gráfica workshop, owned by Ro Barragán, where it is sought to continue the tradition and the typographic trade, linking its production with artistic practices.

Ro holds a Master in Aesthetics and Art Theory by the National University of La Plata, all while developing artistic activities since 1994. She has participated in collective and individual exhibitions in Painting, Engraving, Objects, Digital Art, Installations and Interactive Art, in Buenos Aires and other cities of Argentina, Bogotá, Rome, and Miami. She also has developed art activities in the context of the street, through stickers and posters. She is a Teacher of the Engraving and Complementary Printed Art Workshop at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the National University of La Plata and a teacher of the typography workshop at the Museo de Calcos y Escultura comparada Ernesto de la Cárcova, city of Buenos Aires. She is the creator of Ilusión Gráfica, a typographic printing company that seeks to preserve the tradition of printing with wooden mobile typography.