“Félix González-Torres: “Untitled” (L.A.), January 24 through June 21

Saturday, January 24, through Sunday, June 21

Figge Art Museum, 225 West Second Street, Davenport IA

Inviting visitors to reflect on themes central to the artist's practice – including the joyful celebration of LGBTQ identity, acknowledgment of ongoing challenges to the community’s rights, and the enduring impact of the AIDS epidemic – Felix Gonzalez-Torres: "Untitled" (L.A.) will be on display in the Figge Art Museum's Gildehaus Gallery from January 24 through June 21. The installation offers the Davenport venue a meaningful opportunity to share the work of this deeply influential artist with the Quad Cities community.

A Cuban-born American visual artist who lived and worked primarily in New York City between 1979 and 1995 after attending university in Puerto Rico, González-Torres was trained as a photographer, and his work incorporates this medium in varying ways. He is well known for works that transform commonplace materials into installations that foster meaningful responses from audiences, as well as works with which audiences can choose to physically interact, and works that may be manifested anew and can change each time they are exhibited. González-Torres, who was born in 1957 and passed away from AIDS-related illness in 1996, once stated “the only thing permanent is change,” always questioning the stability of the art object.

Throughout much of González-Torres' practices, he purposefully incorporated dissonant information and formats. Examples of these contradictions include the way he structured courses as a professor, wrote press releases and texts, gave lectures, participated in interviews, and created varying strategies for each body of work. One particular example is the way Gonzalez-Torres structured a lecture on the occasion of a solo-exhibition of his work at The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago in 1994. Following a slide show of various artworks and exhibitions in which his work was included, Gonzalez-Torres proceeded to read a prepared statement reflecting on the current national deficit, government budget allocations for public housing versus military spending, incarceration and poverty rates, and inequitable wealth distribution. He closed the lecture with a quote from a New York Times article that establishes a legacy of contention around the separation of church and state. This methodology was intended to foster individuals’ right and responsibility to have their own point of view.

Over time, Gonzalez-Torres' work has been interpreted through varying critical lenses, including: the subjective construction of histories, questions of monumentality and attachment to permanency; the profoundness of love and partnership, codes and resilience of queer love; the role of ownership; perceptions of value and authority; discourse around death, loss, and the potentiality of renewal; questions of display and conditions of reception; notions of disidentification; the role and subversiveness of beauty; the rewards and consequences of generosity; arbitrary delineations between private and public selves/places; social, political, and personal dimensions of the AIDS epidemic; questions of established economic and political structures; occupation of the margins and infiltration of centers of power; the instability of language and what is connoted vs. denoted; and somatic responses/forms of knowledge. At the core of so many of the artist’s creations is the physical experience of the works and their capacity to be manifest in perpetually changing circumstances.

“This exhibition gives the Figge an important opportunity to share the work of this well-known artist with our community,” said Joshua Johnson, Co-Senior Curator at the Figge Art Museum. “Gonzalez-Torres’s art celebrates LGBTQ identity while also acknowledging ongoing struggles for civil rights and the devastating, lasting impact of the AIDS epidemic. At the same time, this is only one reading of his work: his art remains remarkably open to interpretation—an openness Gonzalez-Torres consistently emphasized in how he hoped viewers would engage with it.”

The exhibition is accompanied by dynamic public programming that extends the experience beyond the gallery. Planned events include film screenings during Pride Month, a dance intervention inspired by the work, and a community reaction art activity. These programs are presented in partnership with local organizations, including Clock Inc, and The Project of the Quad Cities. Local supporting sponsors include Susan Perry and Stan Goodyear, with additional support from Art Bridges Foundation.

Felix Gonzalez-Torres: "Untitled" (L.A.) will be on display in the Gildehaus Gallery from January 24 through June 21, with regular museum hours 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Tuesdays through Saturdays (10 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Thursdays) and noon to 5 p.m. on Sundays. Museum admission is $8-14, and more information is available by calling (563)326-7804 and visiting FiggeArtMuseum.org.