Exhibition

Tania Pérez Córdova: Smoke, nearby

Saturday, Apr 15–Sunday, Aug 20, 2017

Bergman Family Gallery

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A piece of glass is folded into quarters with green edges facing up, resting on a white surface. A smoking stick is wedged into the top fold. There is a dark, round shadow behind the sculpture on the right.

Tania Pérez Córdova, They say it’s like a rock, 2015. Glass from a window facing south and Nag Champa incense; 21 x 29 x 24 cm. Courtesy of the artist and joségarcía, mx.

Image courtesy of the artist

Tania Pérez Córdova (Mexican, b. 1979) is an artist based in Mexico City whose sculptural compositions suggest the passing of time. Inscribed in her seemingly static pieces are hints of an active contemporary life: a borrowed gold earring is suspended from a bronze cast, an active credit card is inserted in a clay platter, a stranger’s SIM card is embedded in a porcelain slab. These objects make visible the artist’s negotiations with third parties—with the women left without one gold earring, with the credit card user, the bank, and the whole credit system. The sculptures are all of us, our relationship to digital communication.

A contact lens rests on the outstretched pointer finger of a loosely clenched, light-skinned right hand.
Tania Pérez Córdova, Cosmetic contact lens on finger, 2016 Image courtesy of the artist
Two light-skinned hands seem to pull at opposite sides of a two paned gilded window frame
Tania Pérez Córdova, Untitled, 2015. Bronze poured into sand; approx. 97.2 x 89.7 x 1.8 cm. Image courtesy of the artist
Two contact lenses with brown and orange irises and clear edges sit side by side on a piece of black-and-white marble.
Tania Pérez Córdova, Even, 2016. Marble, personalized color contact lenses, and a person wearing color contact lenses from a different color than their natural eyes; 39.5 x 32 x 2.5 cm. Image courtesy of the artist
A close up image of a bronze-colored strip of metal cutting horizontally across the frame, with a single diamond earring dangling from its center. Another bent piece of similar metal is shown out of focus above and behind it.
Tania Pérez Córdova, We focus on a woman facing sideways, 2013–16. Bronze, Swarovski Crystal Drop earring, and a woman wearing the other earring; 36 x 18 in. (91.2 x 46 cm). Image courtesy of the artist
A photograph of part of a dark haired woman's head, revealing her neck, cheek, and jaw, with an obviously missing earring in her right ear.
Tania Pérez Córdova, A woman turning left, 2016 Image courtesy of the artist
An image of an undulating sheet of clear glass, seemingly melted into this shape, on top of which is pooled a strip of bright green liquid.
Tania Pérez Córdova, They say what they can, 2015. Glass from a window facing north and Avene soap-free cleansing gel; 18.3 x 75.3 x 31.7 cm. Courtesy of the artist and joségarcía, mx.

Pérez Córdova’s interest in quotidian events underlines how unremarkable situations can be compelling acts associated with a complex infrastructure of social or economic relationships. They are performative works that do not move, “contemporary relics,” as she calls them. Pérez Córdova’s Ascendant Artist exhibition is her first solo museum presentation in the United States.

The exhibition is organized by José Esparza Chong Cuy, Pamela Alper Associate Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. It is presented in the Bergman Family Gallery on the museum’s second floor.

A close up image of a bronze-colored strip of metal cutting horizontally across the frame, with a single diamond earring dangling from its center. Another bent piece of similar metal is shown out of focus above and behind it.

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Funding

Lead support for Tania Pérez Córdova: Smoke, nearby is provided by the Harris Family Foundation in memory of Bette and Neison Harris: Caryn and King Harris, Katherine Harris, Toni and Ron Paul, Pam and Joe Szokol, Linda and Bill Friend, and Stephanie and John Harris; the Margot and W. George Greig Ascendant Artist Fund; Helen and Sam Zell; Anne L. Kaplan; and Cari and Michael Sacks.

Major support is provided by Sally Meyers Kovler and Jonathan Kovler, Elissa Efroymson and Adnaan Hamid, and Marilyn and Larry Fields.

Generous support is provided by The Robey, and Jorge Cauz and Ugo Alfano Casati.

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