Artist
Ignacio Muñoz Vicuña
Artist
Ignacio Muñoz Vicuña’s latest series presents the culmination of his three-year long exploratory process of the physicality of paint. Building upon his fascination with anatomical construction, Vicuña creates a sculptural body, bending and stretching a skin of acrylic paint across stretcher bars of bone. The organic movement of his vivid paintings mimics his method, at once carefully designed and instantaneously manufactured. Working through his nostalgia for the formal quality of painting borne of an increasingly digital landscape, Vicuña’s textile-like works remind the viewer of the tangibility of paint as a medium. His pieces extend out into the viewing space, creating an acute awareness of space and volume, and the suppressed abilities of paint to fill a canvas. The rhythmic ritual of his method teases out the purest aspects of the medium, from its structured conception to its uncontrollable execution. With simultaneous appreciation and manipulation, Vicuña molds his capricious tools into exquisitely contained squares of fluidity. Born and raised in Santiago, Chile, Vicuña holds degrees and certifications in Architecture, Gastronomy, Visual Arts, and Illustration and Graphic Narration. In 2011, he was the artist-in-residence at BLOC in Santiago, Chile. He has received awards from the Foundation of Culture and Viu Manent throughout his career. Vicuña has exhibited extensively throughout Chile and South America. His work is held in monumental Chilean collections, including at the Museum of Contemporary Chilean Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art of Valdivia, and in public parks and spaces. Awards include first place for Urban Art from the Chilean Foundation of Culture and Artists of the 21st Century from Central Extension Catholic University. Vicuña has had solo exhibitions with Gallery XS and the Providence Youth Arts Center in Chile, as well as participated in group exhibitions at Galleria Dacil Art and Bazar ED. His first solo exhibition was with gallery nine5 in 2014. Vicuña is represented for the first time in North America exclusively by gallery nine5. His first major solo exhibition, Pliegue Y Despliegue (Folding and Unfolding) ran from January 14-February 28, 2014.