Pepe López: Root/Route: A Personal Cartography

The exhibition spans the most recent years of artist’s career, including both new commissions and older pieces, developed by López over the years. Paris-based Pepe López‘ practice engages different media, such as painting, sculpture, tapestry, collage, photography, video and performance, to investigate the idea of home, intended both as a physical and conceptual place. His works pursue the research for this place, intended under many different point of views, as a place of origin but also depositary of memories and identity.

In the works on view, López assembles found daily objects, such as in the “Color over Color” series in which pieces are made of plastic bags, collected by the artist for their strong link with everyday life. Other two single works Mapa Boom 06 and Mapa Boom 07 are made out of of the maps of a world atlas that belonged to his grandfather. Through his research, the artist investigates themes recurring in daily life such as violence, terrorism, consumerism and identity politics. The use of plastic, for instance, addresses the issue of petroleum, from which this material is derived, which is in turn a fundamental natural resource for Venezuelan country and also the reason fro many of its troubles.