Fernanda Laguna

Upstairs

Bortolami is pleased to present the first solo gallery exhibition by Argentinean artist, writer, curator, and activist Fernanda Laguna in New York. Hosted in the Upstairs, Welcome to my show in New York!!!!!! highlights the artist’s recent paintings, acting as a counterpart to her current survey exhibition at the Drawing Center.

Laguna’s practice includes decades-long activities as a curator, publisher, and organizer which have positioned her as a continued point of reference and inspiration in Buenos Aires. In 1999, the artist co-founded the legendary alternative space Belleza y Felicidad, which would later move to the outskirts of the city and host educational, artistic, activist, and poetry programs, expanding the community’s access to creativity and pleasure. Later, in 2017, she would open Comedor Gourmet (The Gourmet Soup-Kitchen) which redressed the soup kitchen model from food as necessity to a point of contact, identity, and happiness. Since the 2000s, under the pseudonym Dalia Rosetti, Laguna has published a series of novels, following feminist and queer storylines in styles reminiscent of adult and fan fiction.

Central to Laguna’s multifarious social projects in Buenos Aires is her singular artistic language, combining emotion, spontaneity, and innocence. Often incorporating found materials, from ribbons, glitter, shells, and studs, the artist’s paintings are dressed and decorated, reinforcing the work of art as stemming from the artist’s own sensibility. Laguna states, "I paint the paintings I want to have.” The works’ imagery negates any mistranslations of their conveyed meanings; a crying figure’s torrent of tears are emphasized by gold glitter so that their sadness is forefront. Laguna’s scale is invariably intimate, as she imagines the paintings’ movement and their transfer as tokens of affections.

The exhibition includes several artworks from Laguna’s Mimbres series. Here, the artist’s signature paintings composed of the stuff of girls’ dreams are mounted in delicate wicker frames. Working with a local artisan, the wicker frames are each individualized and add another layer of ornament to the elaborate surfaces Laguna constructs. The wicker material recalls basket weavings, a woman’s craft, and tools to carry. Similarly, they speak to the artist’s roving artistic and social output, that sees the artist moving from diverse realms with ease and the artwork that travel alongside her.