SANTIAGO.- Tierney Gardarin Gallery announces the exhibition, Jorge Tacla: Hidden Identities at the Museo de la Memoria y los Derechos Humanos on view through September 21, 2014. The exhibition features 40 new paintings and 170 drawings from his personal notebooks. The exhibition title Hidden Identities refers to the relationship between the victim and the aggressor - from the most intimate, individual bond to the most global one. This theme has been central to Tacla's work throughout his career.
The exhibition features a series of small format paintings made with oil and cold wax complemented by daily notes from his time in residency at the Rockefeller Foundation in Bellagio, Italy. While in residence, Tacla dedicated himself to this project, registering countless conversations with a psychiatrist, a philosopher and an art critic. According to Tacla, "In the creative process there is no easy transition from the theoretical to the image itself. What one can see on the canvases are the traumas and insanity of human condition. The materiality of these works refers to our own matter."
Tacla has been working on the series of paintings entitled Hidden Identities since 2005. The works explore the relationship between unidentified victims and the aggressor (the agent) - who is disassociated from his own identity. The permeability of their identities and the assessment of their guilt are critical issues to which Tacla returns again and again. An exhibition catalogue has been published including essays by Francisco de Lara, Gianna Faedda, Nilanjana Roy, and Christian Viveros-Faune.
Tacla has been involved with the Museo de la Memoria y los Derechos Humanos since its inauguration in 2010. For the occasion, he created a 111-foot mural entitled Al mismo tiempo, en el mismo lugar (At the same time, at the same place). The work is a tribute to Víctor Jara, the Chilean poet, musician, and activist who was imprisoned and later murdered in 1973 shortly after Pinochet's coup d'état. He, along with thousands of others, were rounded up by the military, held and tortured at Estadio Chile and eventually executed.
Tacla studied at the Escuela de Bellas Artes, Universidad de Chile in Santiago and moved to New York in 1981. Since then, Tacla's paintings have been exhibited in museums, biennials and galleries throughout the world. Recent notable exhibitions include Tales of Two Cities: New York & Beijing at the Bruce Museum in Greenwich, CT, 2014; the Emergency Pavilion at the 55th Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy, 2013; Dublin Contemporary, Dublin, Ireland, 2011; Sharjah Biennial 10, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, 2011; Altered Remains at the Cristin Tierney Gallery, New York, 2011; and the 798 Biennale, Beijing, China, 2009. He has also completed several permanent installations including a mixed-media mural at the Museo de la Memoria y Derechos Humanos in Santiago, Chile. His work is included in many public collections, including the New Museum, New York, NY; Deutsche Bank, New York, NY; the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA; the Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI; the Archer M. Hungington Art Gallery, University of Texas, Austin, TX; Museo Berardo, Lisbon, Portugal; Walker Hill Art Center, Seoul, South Korea; Seibu Artforum, Tokyo, Japan; the Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City, Mexico; and the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Santiago, Chile.
Throughout his career, Tacla has been awarded numerous grants and fellowships. Most recently, Tacla completed a residency at the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center in Bellagio, Italy (2013). Notable awards include New York Foundation for the Arts (1988, 1992); the Eco Art Award, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (1992); and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation (1991), among others.
Tacla lives and works in New York City and Santiago, Chile.
