Adrian Rosenfeld is pleased to announce the next exhibition at his gallery in San Francisco, Estridentópolis, a presentation of new works by Damián Ortega organized with kurimanzutto, Mexico City / New York. Seven large sculptures form the core of Estridentópolis. Building on Mexico’s historical custom of creating papier-mâché effigies (“Judas” figures) to mimic religious figures and political personalities, the works are composed from paper bags used to package and ship powdery cement mix. They take the shape of well known skyscrapers from around the world—the Marina Towers in Chicago, Habitat 67 in Montreal, and Taipei 101, to name a few—and are topped with animal heads. Materially delicate and rich with animism, Ortega’s skyscrapers shine a light on the unfettered ambition at the heart of so much monumental architecture. As the artist puts it, “Paper buildings speak of the fragility of the great projects in life. The material opposes the infinite ambition of reaching new cosmic, celestial, megalomaniacal heights.”

Several smaller works, composed from the same bags, compliment the sculptures and reveal their own allusions to past art. A paper shirt and shoes reference the makeshift protective gear employees at large construction sites in Mexico in the 1960s fashioned from materials on the worksite. They also hint at Joseph Beuys’s famous Felt Suit from 1970, as well as his claim that art can be useful in a practical sense. Weavings and collages by Ortega exploit the bags’ texture and color to evoke textiles, recuperating the modernist medium of papier collé, popular throughout the western hemisphere in the early 20th century. Witty and deeply thought provoking, Estridentópolis marks his first solo exhibition in San Francisco.

Damián Ortega (born 1967) has been included in exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and MoMA PS1, New York; Tate Modern, London; Museo Jumex, Mexico City; and the Centre Pompidou, Paris. Ortega lives and works in Mexico City.

For images or more information, please contact the gallery at info@adrianrosenfeld.com or (415) 285-2841.