Federico Luger (FL GALLERY) is pleased to announce the second solo exhibition of the internationally known Mexican artist Edgar Orlaineta, who will present a new series of wooden sculptures and a group of works on paper.

From the very beginning, artworks of Edgar, inspired by the works of some well-known design icons of the twentieth century (Gio Ponti, Ray Eames, Tuta, Irving Harper, Alexey Brodovitch, Giorgio Morandi, Fausto Melotti, Wendel Castell, Ruth Asawa) that the artist transforms and reinterprets in his way, giving them a new meaning, have been intriguing and surprising the audience.

Unlike Marcel Duchamp, who selected banal objects for his ready-mades, Orlaineta, chooses the opposite objects, full of important visual charge, and then brings a life into them. His method of manipulation with the objects requires a high level of manual skills and technical ability. On the occasion of the exhibition “Su nariz esta roja (artesania asistida)”, Edgar takes inspiration from the metaphor of Pinocchio’s fairy tale: Geppetto’s love for his puppet is so big that it can transform a trivial piece of wood into a real child. Like the character of the story of Carlo Collodi, the Mexican artist becomes a sort of a creator who, turned by the desire to give life to his wooden child, using his skills of a craftsman, creates the work of arts from the wooden crafted figures.

The story of Pinocchio represents for Edgar a point of departure of the relations established between craftsmanship, design and art. It explains how in a completely natural way, through a craftsmanship we can create even a new life (art). The artist was born in Mexico City in 1972, where he currently lives and works. He graduated in Fine Arts at the national school of painting, sculpture and engraving of Esmeralda, he made a specialization in sculpture at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York. He has received diverse national and international awards such as the Graham Foundation Grant in 2010, the Pollock Krasner Foundation Grant scholarship and the scholarship for the Young Creative given by the FONCA.

His works are present in the public collections of the Hirshhorn Museum and at the Sculpture Garden of Washington D.C, at MUAC in Mexico City, at the Caixa Forum in Barcelona, at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles in Califonia, at the Wattis Institute of San Francisco, at the Amparo Museum, at the Puebla and at the University Museum del Chopo, U.N.A.M., in Mexico.