2016 Catalogue Archive

The sculptures and installations of Mexico City artist Pia Camil combine the visual language and materials of capitalist consumer culture with art historical references. For her ceramic Bust Masks, Camil takes inspiration from the display busts found in department stores that showcase jewelry and merges these shapes with those of tribal masks. The melding of timeless forms with commodity culture is repeated in the pedestals displayed with the masks. The wood base is part of a body of work that reinterprets Frank Stella’s early minimalist canvases into functional pieces made from the slatted industrial wood of cheap store display shelves. These disparate references come together with a refinement and intelligence characteristic of Camil’s work.