AUSTIN, TX.- Landmarks, the public art program of The University of Texas at Austin, has announced the commission of a new public art project by Los Angeles-based artist Eamon Ore-Giron. Opening late April, Tras los ojos (Behind the Eyes), is a 15 1/2 x 13 foot digital print that was adapted from a commissioned painting by Ore-Giron. The work will be sited in the lobby of the Sarah M. & Charles E. Seay Building, home to the Department of Psychology in the College of Liberal Arts.
As part of a multi-disciplinary practice, Ore-Giron creates paintings, music, and video art. He is best known for his abstract geometric paintings that reference indigenous and Latin American craft traditions, as well as 20th-century avant-garde movements such as Russian Suprematism and the Dutch De Stijl movement. His visual language combines symbols and motifs drawn from wide-ranging sourcesfrom pre-Columbian textiles and architecture to European modernismand is articulated in compositions that place art historical legacies, spanning geographies and time, in dialogue with each other.
“Eamon Ore-Giron is one of the most interesting artists working today,” remarked Landmarks’ Founding Director and Curator Andrée Bober. “The blended cultures represented in both Eamon’s life and art are a fitting reflection of the communities we serve. We are delighted to add his work to our collection and share his unique perspective with our audiences.”
In Tras los ojos (Behind the Eyes), Ore-Giron takes as a point of inspiration the mechanisms of visual perception and the way in which our eyes see and receive information. Referencing the human mind, the title is a nod to the Department of Psychology and their work within the Seay Building. The mural’s totemic design draws from Brazilian Tropicalia, Latin American Concretism, Italian Futurism, and Russian Constructivism, with layers that project a sense of depth and motion. Circular forms, inspired by ophthalmological eye charts, are juxtaposed with a hard-edged zig zag punctuating the center of the composition. The artist described the top of the work’s gently curving lines as the stratosphere, or “the edge of the atmosphere, where things start to bend.”
“In creating Tras los ojos (Behind the Eyes),” remarked Ore-Giron, “I thought about both the scientific and emotional dimensions of our visual perception and how a work of art can function to enhance public space and contribute to an individual’s sense of purpose or belonging. My goal for this piece was to offer a moment of contemplation, inviting students, faculty, and the larger public to engage in reflection and interpretation, ideally echoing the spirit of inquiry being conducted at The University of Texas at Austin.”
EAMON ORE-GIRON
Born in Arizona to a Peruvian father and a mother of Irish descent, Eamon Ore-Giron (b. 1973) grew up in Tucson. He later spent formative time in Mexico City as well as Huancayo and Lima, Peru, before relocating to Los Angeles, where he is currently based. Ore-Giron received a BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1996 and an MFA from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2006.
Ore-Giron’s work has been featured in solo exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver (2022); Anderson Collection at Stanford University (2021); LAXART, Los Angeles (2015); 18th Street Art Center, Santa Monica (2012); and Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia (2005), among others. His exhibition at The Contemporary Austin opens in March. The artist has also been selected to realize major public commissions by the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority and LA METRO for subway stations in
Brooklyn and Los Angeles, respectively. His work is in the permanent collections of the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Kadist, San Francisco; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Minneapolis Institute of Art; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts; Pérez Art Museum Miami; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; and the United States Consulate General, Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, curated by the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Art in Embassies.
