EDIFICE

THE POINT OF CONTACT GALLERYP R E S E N T S

E D I F I C E G A B R I E L A A L V A C & N A T A L I A P O R T E R

i n a c o l l a b o r a t i v e i n s t a l l a t i o n p r o j e c t

c u r a t e d b y P e d r o C u p e r m a n

director & curatorPedro Cuperman

managing directorTere Paniagua

public relations & marketing assistant

Caroline Early

graphic designAnna Sofía Font

web development

Matthew Les

THE POINT OF CONTACT GALLERY

914 East Genesee Street, Syracuse, NY 13210 • Tel. 315.443.2169

www.puntopoint.org

E D I F I C E G A B R I E L A A L V A C & N A T A L I A P O R T E R

This exhibit at The Point of Contact Gallery in Syracuse, New York,is made possible thanks to the generous support ofNancy Cantor, Chancellor of Syracuse University,

Vice Chancellor Eric Spina,Dean George Langford of the College of Arts & Sciences,

Dean Ann Clarke, of the College of Visual & Performing Arts,and the New York State Council on the Arts.

Our sincere gratitude also to Jeffrey Hoone, Executive Directorof the Coalition of Museum & Art Centers at Syracuse University.

The Point of Contact Gallery is a member of the Coalition of Museum and Art Centers at Syracuse University (CMAC).

Mexican-born, New York City-based artists Gabriela Alva C. and Natalia Porter present their collaborative project, EDIFICE. The show features Alva and Porter in response to the work of Boston artist Andrew Witkin’s writings.

Whether it is architecture, city planning, new-found cultural norms or age-old issues of separation, Natalia Porter and Gabriela Alva question, investigate and propose. Having partnered in previous projects as curator/artist and as co-curators, they now team up as artists for the first time. For this exhibit, Porter and Alva employ work by Boston-based Andrew Witkin, a series of texts and diagrams, to serve as a bridge, from written word to spatial arrangement, and from artist to writer to curator, warping the term collaboration to be more and more dynamic. Witkin’s writings, which can be read as “lists”, are accumulations of thoughts that suggest a sense of order, but still remain abstract. They are organized in an undefined way and yet are quite concrete. They repeat, are rhythmic and include a sense of time and space. Both Porter and Alva respond to the juxtaposition of order and abstraction, as well as to the visual composition of Witkin’s publications. Working collectively and individually, these artists push the means, methods and roles of an exhibition and its participants, seeking and constantly finding new points of contact.

SEPTEMBER 29 - NOVEMBER 4, 2011

E D I F I C E G A B R I E L A A L V A C & N A T A L I A P O R T E R

GABRIELA ALVA C.Born in 1978 in Mexico City, lives and works both in New York and Mexico. Recipient of numerous prestigious awards and titles. Featured amongst a selected group of artists within the Emerging Artists Category: IMPULSE at Pulse Art Contemporary Art Fair (2010), Bronx Museum’s Artists in the Marketplace(2007), BRIC Rotunda Artist of the Month (2008) and Stephen Sprouse Scholarship Fund in Printmaking (2007). Her practice includes mainly sculpture, printmaking and uses photography as an instrument for documenting and generating compositions .

Gabriela is Co-Founder of Eyelevel BQE; an artist-run project established in 2008, that seeks to offer a forum in the Art and Design fields, through a program that involves exhibitions, public installations and traveling residencies.

NATALIA PORTERNatalia Porter was born in Mexico City in 1972, and moved to New York in 2000 to study a Master’s Degree in Industrial Design at Pratt Insttute. In 2006 she received a Masters in Fine Arts from the City University in New York, campus Queens Collage. Since then Natalia has worked both in the fields of art and design. Her work has been featured in the MoMA Design Stores and exhibited internationally, including: Queens Museum of Art (Queens, NY), Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts (New York, NY), EyelevelBQE (Brooklyn, NY), The Gowanus Studio Space (Brooklyn, NY), Exit Art (New York, NY), The Delaware Center for Contemporary Arts (Delaware, DE), Leo Fortuna Gallery (Hudson, NY), Point of Contact Gallery (Syracuse, NY), Latin American Foundation (Netherands), Ludens (Mexico City). Natalia Porter Currently lives and Works in New York City.

“Untitled with foliage, detail” 2008. Laser cut paper and stainless steel cord. Dim: 1 1/2” X 14’

“Untitled with bricks, detail” 2010. Laser cut paper with wood. Dim 9” X 8” X 3”

• to be a part• ceiling floors walls• associative narrative• not everything is scripted (Martha Rosler)• telegram• proxy• augmented reality rather than virtual reality (Steven Skov Holt)• how much weight to place on coincidence• absent, imagined, present• “this worldly experience” (Keats, Ode on a Grecian Urn)• spatial adventure• staged by language (José Luis Blondet)• unthinkable negation• the difficulty of any accurate conveyance of history, or even personal experience (Martin Herbert)• whether to be used offstage• as it happens• That tricky generousity that gives and takes at the same time (Susan Goldwitz)• ‘”For all his genius. Le Corbusier remained completely insensitive to certain aspects of human existence,”he acknowledges. That is putting it mildly.’ (Witold Rybczynski on Nicholas Fox Weber on Le Corbusier)• either/or or both• no outside• open to further investigation

ANDREW WITKIN

NATALIA PORTER

“My training is in the visual arts and industrial design. These disciplines purposefully inform my work. The sculptures, installations and drawings, along with the functional objects and places that I have created all come about through an exploration of ideas that include a balanced experimentation between technological processes and traditional craft. With this in mind, it is important to recognize that I work in response to my surroundings, by interacting with the people, places and objects I come across that I alter in order to assign them expanded meanings and/or additional readings. I create objects and experiences that hopefully lead to critical thought, suggest new ways to perceive reality, and help reduce the boundaries that exist between art and design.”

“M i formación es en artes plásticas, diseño industrial y arquitectónico. Estas disciplinas intencionalmente informan mi trabajo. Las esculturas, instalaciones y dibujos, junto con los objetos funcionales y lugares que he creado, vienen de una exploración de ideas que incluyen una experimentación balanceada entre procesos industriales y artesanales. Con esto en mente es importante reconocer que trabajo en respuesta a mi entorno, al interactuar con gente, lugares u objetos que encuentro los cuales altero con la intención de expander sus significados o darles nuevas lecturas. Creo objetos y experiencias que estimulen un pensamiento crítico, y sugieran nuevas maneras de percibir la realidad buscando reducir la distancia entre diseño y arte.

“I t is through translation both as meaning and appearance that I find myself constantly working. In my current work, I am drawn to the language of the un-functional, recreating the composition of objects set aside, reading into color codes and follow the natural course of aging materials seeking to interpret the process of time and man-made consequence. I like to document it in diverse visual approximations and generate new compositions ”

GABRIELA ALVA C.

“Es a través de la traducción, tanto en el sentido como en aspecto que me encuentro constantemente trabajando. En mi obra actual, me siento atraída por el lenguaje de lo disfuncional, recreando la composición de los objetos que se han dejado a un lado, haciendo lectura de los códigos de color para así seguir, predecir y acelerar el curso natural y envejecimiento de los materiales, buscando así interpretar el proceso del tiempo y sus consequencias. Me gusta documentar mi propio trabajo en diversos planos y aproximaciones, generando así nuevas composiciones”

“broken glass studies. ii ” 2011. Ink jet prints on bfk rives - archival. Dim 11”x17.”

“anti-trespassing configurations. i ” 2011. Ink jet - archival. Dim 11”x17.”

© THE POINT OF CONTACT GALLERY914 East Genesee Street, Syracuse, NY 13210 • Tel. 315.443.2169