For The Art Show 2024, Sicardi | Ayers | Bacino presents a solo presentation of recent works by contemporary artist Reynier Leyva Novo [b. 1983, Cuba]. Working across media, Novo combines anthropological research with cutting-edge technology to examine the global psychological and sociological effects of complex political issues. The booth will feature Novo’s ongoing series, Mnemosyne’s Whisper, which debuted earlier this year at the artist’s solo exhibition Former Present Today at The Blaffer Museum at the University of Houston.
Mnemosyne’s Whisper is comprised of acrylic paintings and drawings on canvas restaging the removal of Confederate monuments and memorials in the United States following the murder of George Floyd in 2020. The title references the Greek goddess of memory, Mnemosyne, and underscores the central role that memory plays throughout Novo’s practice. Here, Novo looks to the decision by numerous state and local governments to remove Confederate monuments and the widespread protests that toppled or defaced others in the public space. First, Novo draws a monument removal taken from a source photograph from the media. He then conceals the removal under multiple layers of blue paint. Novo meticulously selects a single pixel from the same sky as the source image and replicates the blue color palette in the process of painting. Through the sequential application of layer upon layer, the image vanishes, completely obscured by paint.
Each canvas is then photographed with infrared light, revealing the concealed drawing hidden by blue monochrome. The infrared imaging technique provides a layered view of the entire composition in a single image. Presented as a diptych, each work from the Mnemosyne’s Whisper series provides viewers with a sense of tension. The simultaneous erasure and exposure within the compositions evoke the charged emptiness that remains in the location of each decommissioned figure.
In recent years, Novo has secured his position as a rising star of the international art world through participation in biennials and exhibitions worldwide, as well as numerous exhibitions and acquisitions of his work by major institutions. Novo’s work has been presented at the Liverpool Biennial 2010, United Kingdom; La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy (2011, 2017); Biennial de la Habana, Havana, Cuba and the Aichi Triennale, Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Aichi, Japan (2019), among others. Novo’s work is included in the collections of the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada; Bronx Museum of the Arts, Bronx, NY, USA; Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation (CIFO), Farber Collection, New York, NY, USA; Fundación María Cristina Masaveu Peterson, Asturias, Spain; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C., USA; Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Havana, Cuba; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), TX, USA; Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), FL, USA; Pizzuti Collection of the Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH, USA; and the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
Location:
Park Avenue Armory
643 Park Ave
New York, NY 10065
Booth B13
Fair Schedule:
Benefit Preview
Tuesday, October 29, 5-9 pm
Public Days
Wednesday, October 30 through Friday, November 1, 12-7 pm
Saturday, November 2, 12-6 pm