JULY 15 – AUGUST 26, 2006
RECEPTION Saturday, July 15, 5 – 8 pm
LEYLA CARDENAS
"traces of displaced recollections"
d.e.n. contemporary art is proud to present the first United
States solo exhibition by Leyla Cárdenas.
Opening July 15 is Traces of Displaced Recollections,
which includes sculptural and installation works. The exhibition
will be on view until August 26.
In the last six years, Cárdenas moved from her hometown in
Colombia to the U.S., completed graduate school in Los Angeles, then
returned to Colombia in 2005. In her work, Cárdenas explores
the experience of relocation and displacement by documenting architectonic,
urban, and natural surfaces of the places in which she has inhabited
at a given time, creating a "touchable" place of her environment
(i.e., her studio, a railroad track, a building, a road, etc.).
Referring to her work as “site-responsive,” the series
began with floor peelings of her Los Angeles studio. For pieces exhibited
in the 2005 Project Room exhibition at d.e.n., Cárdenas filled
cracks in the gallery floor with dry pigments and “lifted”
canvas impressions of them; and she also recreated a silhouette of
the downtown Los Angeles skyline using remains of discarded roof shingles.
 |
 |
In this exhibition, Cárdenas collects and
re-collects surfaces. Culling the extracted impressions of debris
and worn paint from buildings and objects, then repeating the process,
Cárdenas investigates what lies beneath the surface as well
as what lies between the layers. Like documents containing information
of a particular space with all its accumulated-layered time, the fragments
are carefully arranged with hundreds of pins situating them onto the
wall or balancing them on the floor. Often the imagery appears to
shift from what could be aerial topography to ghostly anthropomorphic
forms.
By collecting small portions of abandoned houses, discarded objects
or forsaken places, she explores the delicate balance of the fragile
part of a stronger whole, and further reflects the vulnerability of
movement, change and relocation. Cárdenas works in a sculptural
way without making sculpture objects, allowing her to engage with
a particular place and all the confluences as well as dimensions within.
Leyla Cárdenas was born in Bogotá, Colombia and currently
lives and works there. In 1999, Cárdenas received her B.F.A.
degree from Los Andes University in Bogotá. She completed her
M.F.A. degree in 2004 at University California, Los Angeles, after
receiving the Colombian Colfuturo Scholarship and a fellowship from
U.C.L.A. Cárdenas has been awarded the U.C.L.A. Art Council
Award, D'Arcy Hayman Award, and has received several honorable mention
awards in Bogotá.
A reception for the artist will be held Saturday, July 15,
from 5 – 8 p.m. The gallery is located at 6023 Washington
Blvd. in Culver City and our hours are Tuesday - Saturday from 11:00
to 5:30. For additional information and visual material, please contact
Donna Enad Napper at (310) 559-3023 or info@dencontemporaryart.com.
©2006