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related info › Artisit Talk and Dinner Saturday, January 28, 2012 › Curator's Tour with Alice Gray Stites Friday, February 3, 2012 › Watch an interview with the artist

other currently showing › Alter Ego: A Decade of Work by Anthony Goicolea › In Tran-sit (Yoan Capote) › The Raft (Armando Marino) › Wheel of Fortune (Anne Peabody) › Channel Two

Alter Ego: A Decade of Work
by Anthony Goicolea

Anthony Goicolea

Opens January 28, 2012
Street Level Gallery, Atrium Gallery, Galleries 1-4, Video Lounge, Channel Two

Born in 1971 in Atlanta, Georgia, Anthony Goicolea is a first-generation Cuban American artist now living and working in Brooklyn, New York. Employing a variety of media, Goicolea explores themes ranging from personal history and identity, to cultural tradition and heritage, to alienation and displacement. His diverse oeuvre encompasses digitally manipulated self-portraits, landscapes, and narrative tableaux executed in a variety of media, including black-and-white and color photography, sculpture and video installations, and multi-layered drawings on Mylar.

Best known for his powerful, and often unsettling, staged photographic and video works, Goicolea made his artistic debut in the late 1990s with a series of provocative multiple self-portrait images. These early works featured groups of young boys on the threshold of adolescence, acting out childhood fantasies and bizarre rituals of revelry and social taboo in highly staged domestic or institutional settings or dense, fairy-tale forests. Revealing a playful self-consciousness, they often consisted of complex composites of the artist himself, in all manner of poses and guises.

Soon thereafter, Goicolea garnered international attention with his ambiguous yet strangely compelling landscapes, ranging from dream-like woodland environments to vast, unforgiving urban and industrial wastelands. The artist has created several series of digitally composited topographies, often populated by bands of masked and uniformed schoolboys. In subsequent series, many of the images are devoid of human figures, although the landscape reflects an anonymous and increasingly tenuous human presence. In these works, primitive lean-tos and crudely constructed shanties coexist in an uneasy union with the technological vestiges of an industrialized society. Suggesting a world on the brink of obsolescence, these chilling images further cement the pervasive undercurrent of human alienation—from one another as well as the natural environment—that can be traced throughout the artist's work.

Goicolea's family immigrated to the United States in 1961, fleeing Cuba soon after Castro came to power. In a recent series of works, the artist trained his unflinching eye on his own personal history in mixed-media works exploring his roots and family heritage. These poignant, sometimes cinematic, images and installations are characterized by a fervent search for ancestral and social connections to a mythical homeland, Cuba—at once revealing nostalgia for a past that the artist never actually experienced, as well as a pronounced sense of cultural dislocation and estrangement.

Goicolea has exhibited widely in group and solo exhibitions at venues throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, and Asia. Goicolea's work is held in many public collections, including those of the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and the Museum of Modern Art, New York; as well as the Yale University Art Collection, New Haven, Connecticut; the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh; and Telfair Museums. The artist, who grew up in the metropolitan Atlanta area, holds a B.A. in art history and a B.F.A. in drawing and painting, both earned at the University of Georgia, Athens. He received an M.F.A. in sculpture, with a minor in photography, from Pratt Institute of Art, New York, in 1996.

This exhibition is organized jointly by the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, and Telfair Museums, Savannah, in collaboration with 21c Museum, Louisville.

Exhibited Works Featured in the Street Level Gallery

• Disassembly, 2006. Mixed media on Mylar. Collection of Allen G. Thomas Jr., Wilson, NC.
• Ramp, 2006. Reclaimed skateboard ramp, silicone, trees, birds. Collection of 21c Museum.
• Night Sitting, 2009. Acrylic, graphite, and spray paint on Mylar. Collection of 21c Museum.
• Related 26a, 2008. Graphite and acrylic on Mylar. Private Collection.
• Related 26b, 2008. Chromogenic print. Private Collection.
• Grave Diggers, 2001. Chromogenic print. Courtesy of the artist and Postmasters Gallery, New York, NY.
• Class Picture, 1999. Chromogenic print. Collection of Fred and Ampy Cox.
• Sea Wall, 2008. 24 Cast lead crystal blocks, 24 hand polished, hand blown glass bottles, each containing a graphite on Mylar drawing. Collection of 21c Museum.
• Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing II, 2011. Graphite and ink on Mylar. Collection of 21c Museum.
• Cherry Island, 2002. Chromogenic print on Sintra board. Collection of 21c Museum.
• Orchard, 2005. Chromogenic print mounted on aluminum and laminated. Collection of 21c Museum.

Exhibited Works Featured on Channel Two

(Televisions in 21c guest rooms and Proof on Main bar)

• The Septemberists, 2006. Single channel video. Running time 30:00 minutes.

Exhibited Works Featured in the Video Lounge

• Amphibians, 2002. Single channel video. Running time 3:30 minutes. Courtesy of Postmasters Gallery, New York, NY.
• Kidnap, 2004-2005. Single channel video. Running time 17:00 minutes. Courtesy of Postmasters Gallery, New York, NY.

Exhibited Works Featured in the Atrium Gallery

• Foundation, 2009. Chromogenic print mounted on aluminum and laminated. Collection of 21c Museum.
• Jettisoned, 2009. Chromogenic print mounted on aluminum and laminated. Collection of 21c Museum.
• Sitio, 2009. Chromogenic print mounted on aluminum and laminated. Collection of 21c Museum.
• Family Geometry, 2008. Ink and acrylic on canvas. Courtesy of the artist and Postmasters Gallery, New York, NY.
• Midnight Kiss, 2004. Chromogenic print, mounted on aluminum and laminated with Plexiglas. Collection of Allen G. Thomas Jr., Wilson, NC.
• Related Installation #1 Telephone Pole, 2008. Inkjet prints, graphite, and pastel on Mylar, lights, and speakers. Collection of 21c Museum.
• Related 5b, 2008. Black and white digital print. Collection of 21c Museum.
• Search Party, 2007. Acrylic paint and mixed media on Mylar mounted on painted wood. Collection of 21c Museum.
• Bed Ridden, 2006. Graphite and ink on Mylar. Collection of 21c Museum.
• Related 1a, 2008. Graphite on Mylar. Collection of Allen G. Thomas Jr., Wilson, NC.
• Related 1b, 2008. Black and white digital print. Collection of Allen G. Thomas Jr., Wilson, NC.
• Fleeing, 2005. Graphite, ink and acrylic on Mylar with horse flies. Collection of the Hort Family, New York.
• Feastings, 2002. Chromogenic print. Collection of 21c Museum.
• Portrait in Negative of a Boy with Harmonica as Madame Gautreau, 2007. Acrylic, graphite and pastel on Mylar. Collection of 21c Museum.
• Tryptich, 2006. Chromogenic print. Collection of 21c Museum.
• Lake, 2004. Chromogenic print. Collection of 21c Museum.
• Morning Sleep, 2004. Chromogenic print mounted on aluminum and laminated. Collection of North Carolina Museum of Art, purchased with funds from June Ficklen, 2007.3.
• Fireside, 2004. Chromogenic print mounted on aluminum and laminated. Collection of 21c Museum

Exhibited Works Featured in Gallery One

• Black House, 2010. Chromogenic print. Courtesy of Friedman Benda and the artist.
• Territorial, 2010. Chromogenic print. Courtesy of Friedman Benda and the artist.
• Siamese Twins, 2010. Digital Chromogenic print. Courtesy of Friedman Benda and the artist.
• Island, 2010. Digital Chromogenic print. Courtesy of Friedman Benda and the artist.
• Piñata, 2010. Digital Chromogenic print. Courtesy of Friedman Benda and the artist.
• Warriors, 2001. Chromogenic print mounted on Sintra board. Collection of 21c Museum.
• Blizzard, 2001. Chromogenic print. Collection of Allen G. Thomas Jr., Wilson, NC.
• I’ll Show You Yours If You Show Me Mine, 2000. Chromogenic print. Collection of 21c Museum.
• Ash Wednesday, 2001. Chromogenic print mounted on Sintra board and laminated. Collection of 21c Museum

Exhibited Works Featured in Gallery Two

• For All the Days, 2010. Acrylic on Mylar. Collection of Mario J. Palumbo, Jr. and Stefan Gargiulo, New York, NY.
• Cat’s Cradle, 2004. Graphite, ink, and acrylic on Mylar. Collection of Allen G. Thomas Jr., Wilson, NC.
• Piss Boat, 2006. Mixed media on Mylar. Collection of 21c Museum.
• The Flood, 2008. Graphite and acrylic on Mylar. Collection of Dr. W. Kent Davis, Raleigh, NC.
• Defectors, 2005. Graphite, ink, and acrylic on Mylar. Collection of Lesley Lana-Heimlich and Philip Heimlich (Courtesy Collector Circle, Inc.).
• Dirge, 2005. Graphite, ink, and acrylic on Mylar. Collection of Mario J. Palumbo Jr. and Stefan Gargiulo.
• Umbrella, 2007. Mixed media on Mylar. Courtesy of Friedman Benda and the artist.
• Smoke Stack, 2007. Chromogenic print, mounted on aluminum and laminated with Plexiglas. Collection of Allen Thomas, Jr., Wilson, NC.
• Deconstruction, 2007. Chromogenic print, mounted on aluminum and laminated with Plexiglas. Collection of the North Carolina Museum of Art, Gift of Allen Thomas Jr. in memory of Carolyn Thomas Marley.
• Low Tide, 2007. Chromogenic print, mounted on aluminum and laminated with Plexiglas. Telfair Museum of Art, purchase with funds provided by the Jack W. Lindsay Foundation

Exhibited Works Featured in Gallery Three

• Greenhouse, 2007. Chromogenic print, mounted on aluminum and laminated Collection of 21c Museum.
• The Tin Drum, 2006. Chromogenic print. Collection of 21c Museum.
• Still Waters, 2006. Chromogenic print. Collection of 21c Museum.
• The Dissection Diptych, 2007. Two chromogenic prints, mounted on aluminum and laminated. Collection of 21c Museum.
• Pool Pushers, 2001. Chromogenic print. Collection of Dr. Carlos Garcia-Velez, Raleigh, NC.
• Under I, Under II, Under III and Under V, 2001. Chromogenic prints. Collection of 21c Museum

Exhibited Works Featured in Gallery Four

• Still Life with Pig, 2005. Chromogenic print, mounted on aluminum and laminated. Collection of the North Carolina Museum of Art, gift of Allen G. Thomas, Jr..
• Cross Section II (Hair), 2011. Graphite and ink on Mylar. Collection of 21c Museum.
• Cross Section II (Lungs), 2011. Graphite and ink on Mylar. Collection of 21c Museum.
• Cliffside, 2002. Chromogenic print. Collection of Jennifer Dalton and Wellington Fan, Brooklyn, NY.
• Tree Dwellers, 2004. Chromogenic print, laminated and mounted on Sintra board. Collection of the International Contemporary Art Foundation.
• Guardian, 2008. Chromogenic print. Telfair Museum of Art, purchased with funds provided by the William Jay Society.

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