BEATRIZ CORTEZ X RAFA ESPARZA: EARTH AND COSMOS, A JOURNEY THROUGH THE ANCIENT CULTURES
Art at Americas Society will present Beatriz Cortez x rafa esparza: Earth and Cosmos on January 29, 2025, an exhibition showcasing the collaboration of two artists exploring ancient cultures of the Americas; this approach highlights the dialogues and exchanges between artists and their peers, which deeply shape and enrich their creative processes.
Beatriz Cortez and Rafa Esparza, both Los Angeles-based artists, explore how ideas of the Earth, the cosmos, the underworld, and the knowledge developed by ancient indigenous people, flow around all beings and matter. In the exhibition’s publication Cortez said: “I see my sculptures as time-travelers. I don’t always know if they are coming here from the past or from the future, but I know that they are spaces of generosity. They honor the technologies, strategies, spirituality, and knowledge of ancient peoples and celebrate their survival in the future”.
Their “reciprocal and not unilateral” collaboration, in Esparza's words, led to numerous co-created projects such as Nomad 13, Xolotl's Time Travels, Solar Star, Puente, and Portal Sur, after Copán.
Aime Iglesias Lukin Director and Chief Curator of Art at Americas Society, stated, “in order to allow the artists to fully tell their own story”, the curatorial team acted as coordinators, mediators and facilitators of these artists’ dialogues while minimizing their intellectual input.
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Rafa Esparza Hyperspace:-100km + ∞, 2024. Adobe, steel mesh, rebar, and basalt. Courtesy of the artist and Commonwealth and Council. Photo: artist composite/rafa esparza
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Beatriz Cortez Cabeza de Jaguar (Monumento #47), 2022. Steel, patina. Courtesy of the artist and Commonwealth and Council. Photo: Paul Salveson
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Beatriz Cortez Gift of the Artist to the Ancient Object Labeled as Human Head. Emerging from Monster Jaws, One Migrant to Another, in Memory of Your True name and Your Land, 2022-2023. SteelCourtesy of the artist, Commonwealth and Council, and theWilliams College Museumof Art. Photo: Bradley Wakoff
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Beatriz Cortez, Kaqjay, and FIEBRE Ediciones Altar de Kaqjay, 2021. Steel. Courtesy of the artists. Photo: Yubo/OfPhoto Studio, Los AngelesContemporary Exhibitions
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Rafa Esparza, assisted by Karla Ekaterine Canseco and YomahraGonzalez Corpo RanfLA: Terra Cruiser 4everz, 2023. Video documentation of live performance in San Francisco,1:30:49.
“Beatriz Cortez × rafa esparza: Earth and Cosmos is not only an opportunity for the artists to reflect on their individual and collaborative work but is also a way to expand what curating means”, said Iglesias Lukin.“In turn, it will draw viewers’ attention to the fluid boundaries of authorship and the collective spirit inherent in artmaking by exposing the networks of personal relations that inform artistic creation and animate culture”.
In Hyperspace: -100km + ∞ , Esparza pays tribute to the Olmec civilization, one of Mesoamerica's earliest cultures, through a distorted Olmec head sculpture. The piece, crafted from the artist's family adobe recipe mixed with basalt—the volcanic stone used for original Olmec heads—symbolizes the journey of molten magma from the Earth's crust to its eruption and transformation into stone. This journey reflects the infinite forms and histories basalt can embody.
Accompanying Esparza’s work are two steel sculptures by Cortez: Cabeza de Jaguar (Monumento #47) (2022) and Gift of the Artist to the Ancient Object Labeled as Human Head Emerging from Monster Jaws, One Migrant to Another, in Memory of your True Name and your Land (2023). These works evoke looted ancient artifacts, delving into the movement of people and material across landscapes and their shared histories.
The works in the exhibition will be placed atop an adobe brick installation by Esparza,which will occupy part of the gallery to allow the works to meet the Earth and the soil from where they are removed.
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