Alter-Ego: A Decade of Work by Anthony Goicolea

Exhibition Closed January 2012

Organized by the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh and the Telfair Museum of Art, Savannah

This midcareer survey will consist of approximately 30 works, including photographs, drawings, videos, and mixed-media installations by Anthony Goicolea. Over the past decade, Goicolea has created a significant and highly successful body of work, and he has proven his skill in easily crossing from one medium to the next. This comprehensive exhibition will draw upon North Carolina collections with substantial works by Goicolea; loans from museums, galleries, and private collectors; and three works by Goicolea in the North Carolina Museum of Art’s permanent collection.

Goicolea’s photographs and videos depict a fantastic world created by the artist. In his earlier work, which focused on childhood, adolescence, and the transition to adulthood, Goicolea, often disguised by costumes, wigs, and makeup, had the starring role in all of his images; using digital manipulation to “clone” himself, he played the part of each character depicted. Now he often hires actors to play the parts, but he still has a hand in everything that leads up to the final work of art-he builds the set, designs the wardrobe, does the makeup, takes the photographs, and digitally composes the final image (which can take over a month to complete).

Drawing upon dreams, myths, fairy tales, childhood fantasies, and memories, Goicolea’s multimedia works are enigmatic, mysterious, ambiguous, humorous, unsettling, and pro-vocative. He is the consummate storyteller-he  provides just enough information to set the scene and then leaves it up to the viewer to fill in the story line. His layered works on paper and Mylar incorporate collage, gold leaf, and acrylic paint with intricately detailed ink and graphite drawings that expand the narratives found in the photographs and videos in surreal, dreamlike images. His large-scale installations incorporate video, sculpture, painting, and drawing to create complex environments and mysterious scenes that are open to numerous interpretations.

Goicolea’s earlier work focused on adolescent rites of passage and teenage male protagonists set in decadent, almost baroque, environments saturated in color. In his recent work, he has shifted to a more somber and contemplative black-and-white palette to explore issues of displacement, dislocation, and aging.

In his latest series, Goicolea melds contemporary issues of environmental destruction and globalization with film noir and 19th-century landscape painting in works that are simultaneously visually seductive and unsettling. This exhibition will include both early and recent works of art that represent the vast scope of the artist’s career to date.

 

 

 

 

 

Top: Anthony Goicolea;  Morning Sleep; 2004; chromogenic print mounted on aluminum and laminated

Top (inset): Anthony Goicolea;  Night Sitting; 2009;  Acrylic, graphite, and spray paint on mylar on three panels;  81 x 124 inches (overall);  Courtesy of 21c Museum, Louisville

Bottom: Anthony Goicolea; Poolpushers; 2001; chromogenic print

Anthony Goicolea;  Ramp; 2006;  Reclaimed wood, silicone, trees, and birds; 120 x 197 x 67 inches;  Courtesy of 21c Museum and Collection of Laura Lee Brown and Steve Wilson, Louisville, KY

—————————————————-

Members’ Opening and Reception

Jepson Center

Thursday, Sept. 1, 2011 6 p.m.

Featuring lecture by Anthony Goicolea, followed by reception to celebrate the opening of Alter-Ego: A Decade of Work by Anthony Goicolea  and Betsy Cain: In Situ.

—————————————————

Alter Ego: A Decade of Work by Anthony Goicolea catalogue is available for purchase in the museum store located in the Jepson Center.