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Biography

Anuar Maauad

b. 1984 in Querétaro, Mexico, and lives and works in Mexico City

 

Anuar Maauad destabilizes the hegemonic powers exerted and consolidated in the calcified tradition of monumental public sculpture by foregrounding the technical processes by which these objects are both fabricated and destroyed. Political figures are monumentalized through works of public sculpture that hew to centuries-old aesthetic conventions, with only the (idealized) faces changing over time. In repurposing the literal cast-offs of the still-booming production of these monuments in Mexico, Maauad denies both the leaders who would be memorialized and the viewers who would behold them even that degree of recognition. The hulking, golem-like plaster forms used in the bronze casting process are submitted in place of the heroic figures once hatched from them. Other would-be memorials, rejected by dissatisfied patrons or artisans, are once again melted down and re-formed into flat, vertical panels whose upright rectilinearity recall the dimensions of aristocratic portrait painting. Both the inscrutable plaster giants and the surprisingly lacy bronze wafers withhold the object of the viewer’s curiosity—the identities of the ones whom these materials were originally marshalled to lionize. Where the monumental sculpture tradition presents itself as solid, permanent, and self-evident, Maauad concentrates his sculptural practice on the indexical sign—an image or object that is a trace of something else, like a cast from a mold. In so doing, Maauad prompts a broader consideration of the indelible effects of self-serving regimes on the public sphere, long after those who perpetuated them are gone.

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ANUAR MAAUAD

b. 1984, Queretaro, Mexico

 

EDUCATION

BS Architecture , Universidad de Las Américas, Puebla, México

BFA, La Esmeralda (Escuela Nacional de Pintura, Escultura y Grabado),

Ciudad de México, México

 

SOLO/TWO PERSON EXHIBITIONS

2022         We Are Bodies, Gavlak Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

2019         Share, Black Cube, Denver, CO

2018         This Modern House for Sale, Galeria Mascota, Mexico City, MX

2017         This Modern House for Sale, Efrain Lopez Gallery, Chicago, US Corners, 1.5 Rooms, Brooklyn, NY, US

2016         The Portrait Project, Polyforum Siqueiros, Mexico City, Mexico

2013         Stop Motion, Museo De Arte Sonora, Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico

 

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2021         Epilogo, Arteriam, Mexico City, MX

2020         Nave Generadores, curated by Ana Cadena, Centro de las Artes, Monterrey, MX

2017         Monumentos, anti-monumentos y nueva escultura pública, curated by Pablo Leon de la Barra, Museo Universitario del  

Chopo, Mexico City, MX

Monumentos, anti-monumentos y nueva escultura pública,curated by Pablo Leon de la Barra, Museo de Arte Zapopan, 

Zapopan, MX

Death Drive, curated by Carlos Garcia-Montero, Y Gallery, New York, NY

2016         Policías del Polvo, Galería Emma Molina, Monterrey, MX

2015         Sociedad 1, Torschluss Panik, Mexico City, MX

2014         En El Umbral, Museo Universitario del Chopo, Mexico City, MX

2013         Reprise 4, Casa Maauad, Mexico City, MX

2012         123 Volumen, Poliforum Siqueiros, Mexico City, MX

All We Have Is Time, White Spider, Mexico City, MX

2011         On the Edge: Statements in Black and White, S Cube, Laguna Beach, CA, US

 

ORGANIZATIONAL AND ART MANAGEMENT

2016       Curator; Policías del Polvo, Galería Emma Molina, Monterrey, MX

2010       Founder and Director of Casa Maauad, Ciudad de México, MX

 

COLLECTIONS

Jumex Foundation Collection, Mexico City

Constantini Collection, Argentina

Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO

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