EVENT: Binaries @ Ignacio Uriarte (UMOCA: March 1 - June 15)

UMOCA Presents Ignacio Uriarte: Binaries
MAR 1 – JUN 15

Salt Lake City – Utah Museum of Contemporary Art (UMOCA) is proud to present Ignacio Uriarte: Binaries, a survey about the work place as a total medium.

Join UMOCA for an opening reception for Ignacio Uriarte on March 1st from 8-10 p.m. and a Q&A with the artist hosted by Senior Curator Aaron Moulton beginning at 7 p.m. Claimed to be one of the top 10 artists to watch in 2013 by The Huffington Post, this is an evening not to be missed.

Spanish-born, Berlin-based artist Ignacio Uriarte obtained a degree in business administration and, naturally, pursued a career in an office environment. Throughout the day, Uriarte found himself intersecting the behaviors, textures, and languages of organizational culture with the strategies and tactics of Minimalism and Conceptual art. This unconventional path led him to a bilingual artistic practice that can be understood by anyone who has either stood in an art museum or occupied a cubicle.

UMOCA’s presentation of Binaries is an immersive survey into Uriarte’s research on the formal subjects of black and white, convex and concave, handmade and mass-produced as well as fundamental issues found in routine office environments. The works and the title are a reflection on the artist’s intersection of these two practices.

Uriarte describes his own practice as a “typology of the error,” a call-and-answer between man and technology and the constant battle to accomplish an objective perfectly despite inevitable impossibility. Overall, his work is defined by a relationship to familiar rituals, set standards and unconscious actions that are built into how we navigate daily life. The parameters for any given project are predetermined by the chosen medium’s limitations and Uriarte is merely the messenger exposing the available results.

“Uriarte’s work is problematically accessible: Everyone can see themselves, their rituals and their actions in these ironically neutral plays on minimalism,” says Senior Curator Aaron Moulton. “Suddenly procrastination, down time, looking busy, and daydreaming become viable methodologies for exploring conceptual mandalas and aesthetic situations.” 

UMOCA’s programming including Ignacio Uriarte: Binaries is made possible in part through the generous support of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. A special thanks to the following for their kind collaboration:

Acción Cultural Española (AC/E) in Madrid
Galeria Nogueras Blanchard, Barcelona / MadridNavigator Paper

About The Artist

Ignacio Uriarte has had solo exhibitions at Sala Rekalde in Bilbao, Spain in 2011 and recently at the Drawing Center in New York. The Huffington Post claimed him to be one of the top 10 artists to watch in 2013.Ignacio Uriarte is represented by Galeria Nogueras Blanchard, Barcelona / Madrid; i8 Gallery, Reykjavik; Galleria Gentili, Prato; and La Fábrica, Madrid.

About UMOCA
Award-winning Utah Museum of Contemporary Art exhibits groundbreaking artwork by local, national, and international artists. Four gallery spaces provide an opportunity for the community to explore the contemporary cultural landscape through UMOCA’s exhibitions, films, events, classes, and presentations.

Founded in 1931, the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art has been recognized as Best Museum in the State of Utah for 2011 and 2012 and is a four-time recipient of funding from the Andy Warhol Foundation.

Located at 20 S. West Temple; open Tuesday-Thursday: 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.; Friday: 11 a.m. - 9 p.m.; Saturday: 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.; closed Sunday and Monday. Admission is free. For more information call (801) 328-4201 or visit www.utahmoca.org.