Parásito cósmico V, 2015.
Cement, wood.
59 x 63 x 132 cm.
THE TRANSIENCE
OF MATTER
2000 EMANUEL TOVAR 2021
A construction of images confronting the sublime with the everyday as a critical strategy, from a very personal and poetic language, almost sustained by a tragic beauty.
The Transience of Matter
Emanuel Tovar: Complete works, 2000–2021.
A confrontation between the sublime and the everyday as a critical strategy, from a very personal and poetic language, almost sustained by a tragic beauty.
Guadalajara, Jalisco. Mexico.
© 2021, Emanuel Tovar.
Emanuel Tovar
Guadalajara, México, 1974
Emanuel Tovar is a multidisciplinary artist who explores and expands the limits of sculpture, performance, and installation. Through his work, he constructs and recreates images through which he opposes the sublime and everyday life as a critical strategy, from a very personal and poetic language, almost sustained by a tragic beauty.
Body, space, and everyday objects are united to then abstract and return them to the public -in simple situations, scenarios, or vestiges that evoke landscapes and small narratives- as interrogations about working life and the political, economic, cultural, and philosophical implications that surround it in different contexts.
El trabajo te hará libre, 2011.
Art Installation comprised of wood, sheetrock, variable dimensions.
Art Installation comprised of wood, sheetrock, variable dimensions.
Fragility becomes a constant in his creative search while questioning social schemes and those of art itself.
Hebras de polvo, 2020.
Wooden table, debris, (detail).
171 x 200 x 50 cm.
Wooden table, debris, (detail).
171 x 200 x 50 cm.
From materials that are frequently linked to physical labor such as clay, coal, or cement, Tovar's works take forms that change and are presented in different stages of their (re) production. Sometimes his actions pose moments of encounter and depth for the viewer and become installations or sculptures, in others, the sculptural cites the trace of performativity encapsulated in the material and the object.
Paisaje metafísico XVII, 2018.
Oil on linen.
40 x 30 x 5 cm.
Oil on linen.
40 x 30 x 5 cm.
Paisaje metafísico XXI, 2018.
Oil on linen, diptych.
40 x 60 x 5 cm.
Oil on linen, diptych.
40 x 60 x 5 cm.
From the observation of physical labor and its socio-economic and urban environment, Tovar articulates a series of reflections in relation to the body as political territory. In the spaces in which the artistic work is framed, he activates and questions the creative and intellectual relationships of the art world as well.
Emanuel Tovar’s work has been exhibited in different spaces and institutions inside and outside of Mexico. He has won the ILLY award for Solo Project at PARC Peru art fair (2017) and was Member of the National System of Art Creators of the National Fund for Culture and the Arts (2014) to name a few.