Baronian Xippas is pleased to announce Dibujos en el delirio, a solo exhibition by Uruguayan artist Ricardo Lanzarini (1963 -) opening at the gallery on Saturday May 25th, 2019.

Don’t miss the Guided Tour with the artist and Catherine de Zegher at 4.30 pm!

Ricardo Lanzarini (b.1963, Montevideo, Uruguay) is a key figure of the Uruguayan art scene and works mainly with ink on paper. He is a master of scales and, like a magician, works in all formats, from miniature drawings made using a magnifying glass to  monumental murals. His pen and ink drawings combine historical and autobiographical elements. Nietzsche, Kafka and Karl Marx, among others, appear in his work, as well as religious leaders, reproductions of artworks, prisoners and hospitals… He often combines several references and proposes a variety of metaphors on the functioning of power. The result is a colourful collection of crazy scenes that are filled with humour and pathos.

Ricardo Lanzarini’s iconography refers to images that we encounter every day, but also to those that are etched in his memory. Whether a non-specific autobiographical fact or an historical reference, both can form starting points. Marked by the dark period of military dictatorship in his country, his artistic practice refers to the frustrations of the human condition and features angry men who attack others, those in power struggling to define their territory, etc…

Other images can be interpreted as ironic metaphors of power and politics. In some works, we have the feeling that the artist takes us behind the scenes of reality to reveal the true faces of political actors. They all play a role, a role that only appeals to one person, the spectator.

The “Academia de arte” series of drawings depicts a group of characters who ‘simulate’ the creation of an artwork. The absurdity represented by this series is not just radical because of its inaccuracy, the lack of historical context and the absence of common sense, but also due to the arrogance, fearlessness, spontaneity and exhibitionism. This ironic and critical scene aims to destabilize the viewer. (*)

* Excerpt from the text Academia de arte conceptualote (Ricardo Lanzarini, 2019).

About Ricardo Lanzarini

Ricardo Lanzarini was born in Montevideo, Uruguay (1963), where he lives and works. He  graduated in Fine Arts at the University of the Republic, Uruguay.

Since 1992 he has exhibited nationally and internationally: VI and VII Havana Biennial (1997–2000); Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nantes (1997); Comer o no Comer (Salamanca 2002); III International Biennial of Standards (Tijuana, Mexico, 2004); The Drawing Center of New York (2004); 29th Biennial of Pontevedra (Spain 2006); 1st Encounter Between Two Seas: Bienal de Sao Paulo-Valencia (Spain, 2007); DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Garden (Massachusetts, 2008); Syracuse University (New York, 2009); IV and VII Mercosul Biennial (2003–2009); 18th Biennale of Sydney (2012); 1a. Bienal de Montevideo (2012); 5th. Biennale of Moscow (2013); MSK-  Museum Voor Schone Kunsten Gent (2014); 4th Poly/Graphic Triennial, San Juan: Latin America and the Caribbean (2015); 21 Bienal de Arte Paiz in Guatemala (2018). 

In 2005 he was included in Emma Dexter’s Vitamin D: New Perspective (Phaidon Press). In 2015 his work was part of Roger Malbert’s Drawing People: The Human Figure in Contemporary Art (Thames & Hudson). 

Among the public and private collections in which he is represented are MSK- Museum Voor Schone Kunsten Gent, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nantes, FRAC des Pays de la Loire, Deutsche Bank Collection, New York Public Library, Centre National des Arts Plastiques, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Centre National de l’Estampe et l’Art Imprimé, La maison rouge–Fondation Antoine de Galbert, Louis-Dreyfus Family Collection- William Louis-Dreyfus Foundation, Centro Cultural Tijuana, and Centro de Arte Contemporáneo Wifredo Lam.