The University Art Museum (UAM) at California State University Long Beach (CSULB) presents David Lamelas: A Life of Their Own, the first US monographic exhibition of the Argentine-born pioneer of conceptual art, who initially gained international acclaim for his work in the 1968 Venice Biennale, Office of Information about the Vietnam War at Three Levels: The Visual Image, Text and Audio. Organized by the UAM and Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (MALBA), David Lamelas: A Life of Their Own is on view September 17 – December 10, 2017 and at MALBA, from March 16 – June 11, 2018. The exhibition is co-curated by UAM curator Kristina Newhouse and Maria Jose Herrera, director of El Museo de Arte Tigre in Argentina, as part of the Getty’s initiative Pacific Standard Time LA/LA.
With A Life of Their Own, customary narratives about conceptual art-makers and their practices in the late 20th and early 21st century are reframed. Exposure to “post-national” artists like David Lamelas unravels tightly-bound assumptions about who is represented in the artistic landscape of the United States, this hemisphere, and abroad. An analytic theme of A Life of Their Own is Lamelas’s adaptability to place and circumstance, which influences his creative production.
