Jorge Méndez Blake
Toda escritura comienza en una selva XIII / All Writing Begins in a Jungle XIII, 2022
Colored pencil on paper
100 x 70 cm
The work of Méndez Blake explores the possible intersections between literature, visual arts and architecture, fusing different historic and geographical elements, provoking new readings on the role of language in our culture. The artist employs analysis and synthesis as tools to transform the narrative and the poetic into visual compositions, attempting to shed a light on the material aspects that are implied in the act of writing. Similarly, Méndez Blake has devoted a significant part of his work to studying libraries as relational systems in which historical and cultural dimensions of a given context converge.
His work has been the subject of solo exhibitions in museums such as Casa de México in Spain; Kunsthalle Mulhouse, France; MARFA Contemporary; the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver and the Museum of Latin-American Art, Los Angeles, United States; Museo D’Arte Contemporanea Villa Croce, Geneva, Italy and in Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo, Museo Tamayo, Sala de Arte Público Siqueiros and Museo de Arte Moderno in Mexico. His work has been part of group shows at the Musée d’Art Moderne, La Maison Rouge and the Musée Mac/Val in Paris, France; the Bass Museum in Miami, the Aspen Art Museum, the Artspace in New Haven, Hessel Museum of Art in New York and the Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara in the United States; at the Fundación PROA in Buenos Aires, Argentina; at the Fundación Marcelino Botín, Santander and Casa Encendida, Madrid, in Spain; at the Stedelijk Museum Schiedam and Frankendael Foundation in Amsterdam, Netherlands; the Queensland Art Gallery, Australia; the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia; the ASU Museum of Art, Phoenix, United States; in BOZAR, Brussels, Belgium; the Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, Poland. At the Fundación JUMEX, the Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil, the Museo Nacional de Arte, the Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes, in Mexico City; MARCO, Monterrey, Mexico; Instituto Cultural Cabañas and Museo de Arte de Zapopan in Guadalajara and Museo Amparo in Puebla, among others. He has also participated in the XIII Biennale of La Habana, Cuba, with a project at the Biblioteca Nacional José Martí (2019); the Rashid Karami International Fair, Tripoli, Lebanon (2018); the NGV Triennale, Melbourne, Australia (2017); the 13th Istanbul Biennial (2013); SABER DESCONOCER, 43 Salón (Inter) Nacional de Artistas, Museo de Antioquia in Medellín, Colombia (2013) and was a recipient of the Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation, Grant Program Miami, United States (2012). Currently he is a member of the Sistema Nacional de Creadores in Mexico. His work is part of the following collections: National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia; Sayago & Pardon Collection, United States; Pérez Collection, Miami, United States; Museo Amparo, Mexico; Deutsche Bank Collection; Queensland Art Gallery, Australia; Philara Collection, Dusseldorf, Germany; Fundación/Colección Jumex, Mexico; Colección del pueblo de Jalisco; Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporáneo MUAC, Mexico. He lives and works in Guadalajara, Mexico.