Mapping - Marcello Mercado
MAPPING featuring paper works by the internationally acclaimed artist MARCELLO MERCADO from Brühl
Opening on Sunday, January 16, 2011, at 3:00 PM, at [galerie.bruehl], Uhlstraße 2, 50321 Brühl,
The exhibition will be on view until February 12, 2011, during the following hours:
Monday to Friday from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM and 2:00 PM to 6:00 PM, Saturday from 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM.
About the exhibition:
Marcello Mercado, an Italian-Argentinian artist from Brühl, works across disciplines in painting, video, bio-art, objects, installations, sound art, and network projects. His diverse body of work is characterized by the intersection of robotics and biology, the virtual and the real, the material and the ethereal. In his latest exploration of the classic medium of drawing, Marcello Mercado brings together elements that initially seem disparate.
On large sheets of paper, Marcello Mercado creates visual spaces marked by lush, sprawling lines. To achieve this, he sends self-built drawing robots, which combine pens with mechanical toys, vibration functions from mobile phones, or the rotational movements of electric toothbrushes, on a journey across the canvas. They produce a variety of line structures, grinding and dotting, vibrating in spirals or moving in sharp staccato across the paper, leaving behind mysterious traces reminiscent of those in the snow.
However, Mercado does not leave the field entirely to the machines—he intervenes, directs, and stops, commenting on the line structures with freely swinging, gestural overlays, which he then covers again with the diverse line patterns created by the drawing robots.
In MAPPING, which translates to mapping or topographical documentation in English, the viewer's gaze constantly shifts between close and far, between seemingly endless fine structures and distinctly placed painterly gestures. The observer embarks on a fascinating journey through the visual spaces created by Marcello Mercado.
About the artist:
Born in 1963. From 1996 to 1997, Marcello Mercado was a fellow at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation, and The Lampadia Foundation. From 1999 to 2001, he was a fellow at the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne. His works have been exhibited at the Museum Ludwig Cologne, ZKM Karlsruhe, Museo Nacional y Centro de Arte Reina Sofía Madrid, New York Film Festival Lincoln Center, the 11th Biennale de l'Image en Mouvement Geneva, ABC Radio National Sydney, Oberhausen Short Film Festival, Arco Madrid, and Art Miami Basel. His international awards include the Videofest Berlin Prize in 1994, the Video Art Prize from Clermont-Ferrand in 1998, the first prize at the Video-Biennale Videobrasil in São Paulo in 1998 and 2001, and the Grand Prix at the Brussels Video Festival in 1994.