Exhibition

  • Architecture + Art: Héctor Zamora
    Héctor Zamora
    Artist
    Cassandra Coblentz
    Curator
    Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art
    Oct 27, 2012 to Jan 27, 2013
  • GRANTEE
    Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art
    GRANT YEAR
    2011

Héctor Zamora, Reductio Ad Absurdum, 1976 ALJO travel trailer, 25 tons of fragmented rock and sand native to Arizona; Trailer: 102 x 96 x 216 inches; rocks: dimensions variable, 2012. Courtesy of the artist; Labor, Mexico City; and Luciana Brito, São Paolo.

Architecture + Art: Héctor Zamora, organized by the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (SMoCA) is a site specific project in response to the environmental and architectural context of the Museum's site in Scottsdale, Arizona. Artist Héctor Zamora creates a dynamic installation that explores the social implications of architecture. Focusing on issues of urbanism/suburbanism and city planning, Zamora's installation challenges viewers to reconsider how to read their physical environment and to think more critically about the implications of the constructed world we live in today and for the future. The project is an experimental approach to exhibiting the creative activity accomplished in the area of architecture and design. The goal is to pose questions and stimulate dialogue around foundational concerns about how we define the terms architecture and art in a rapidly changing world.

Héctor Zamora (b. Mexico City, 1974) lives and works in São Paulo, Brazil. He graduated with a BA in Graphic Design from Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana - Xochimilco, Mexico City in 1998. Zamora's artwork has been exhibited internationally in Belgium, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Egypt, France, Germany, Guatemala, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Peru, Poland, South Korea, Spain, Ukraine, United Kingdom and the United States. Zamora's recent outstanding installations include Delirio Atopico (Atopic Delirium), Bogota, Colombia, 2009; Sciame di Dirigibili (Zeppelin Swarm), 53rd Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy, 2009; Errant, Tamanduateí River, São Paulo, Brazil, 2010; White Noise, Auckland Festival, Auckland, New Zealand, 2011; Inconstância Material (Material Inconstancy), Luciana Brito Gallery, São Paulo, Brazil, 2012; and Orden y Progreso (Order and Progress), Paseo de los Héroes Naveles, Lima, Peru, 2012. Zamora's work has also appeared in group exhibitions, including Eco: Arte Mexicano Contemporáneo, Reina Sofía, Madrid, 2005; 9th Havana Biennial, Cuba, 2006; 27th São Paulo Biennial, Brazil, 2006; Synclastic/Anticlastic, Liverpool Biennial, United Kingdom, 2010; 32° Panorama da arte Brasileria, São Paulo, 2011; and Resisting the Present: Mexico 2000/2012, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France, 2012.

SMoCA project curator Cassandra Coblentz brings extensive curatorial experience to the exhibition including collaboration with architects Atherton Keener (AZ) and Lead Pencil Studio (WA) for previous projects in Architecture + Art. She has produced more than thirty exhibitions and ten publications. Previously, she was head of academic initiatives at the UCLA Hammer Museum. She has worked in curatorial/educational capacities at the Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia; DIA Center for the Arts, NY; and the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles. Coblentz has her BA in Art History and English from Cornell University and her MA in Curatorial Studies from Bard College.

Claire C. Carter is the assistant curator at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (SMoCA). She received her MA in the history of contemporary and modern art from the University of Glasgow and BA in political theory, gender studies and art history from Indiana University, Bloomington. During her five-year curating practice, Ms. Carter has organized over thirteen exhibitions including At the Crossroads of American Photography: Callahan, Siskind, Sommer; Modernity and Its Discontents; Reimagining the West; and artists tell stories (mostly about themselves). She has coordinated traveling exhibitions at SMoCA, most recently I Myself Have Seen It: Photography and Kiki Smith. Ms. Carter has been published in international art magazines and journals. Among her museum publications are At the Crossroads of American Photography and Modernity and Its Discontents. Ms. Carter's exhibitions have been recipients of grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and Graham Foundation.

Founded in 1999, the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (SMoCA) is an educational institution dedicated to presenting exhibitions on contemporary and modern art, architecture, and design. SMoCA's mission is to champion creativity, innovation and the vitality of the visual arts. We seek both to build and to educate audiences for modern and contemporary art, as well as to provide opportunities for the artistic community-locally, nationally and internationally. SMoCA provides a memorable experience of art, architecture and design by exploring new curatorial approaches and by highlighting cultural context. We interpret, exhibit, collect and preserve works in these media."