The works of Artemio (Mexico, 1976) are characterized by reflecting–or not–through humor and irony–or not–about power structures. Currently, he finds himself reflecting on and deconstructing as he can–or not–the power structures that exist–or don’t–in the art world.
The show “Decent Works” is the second part of the saga that began with “Bonfire of the Vanities” (2019) and which will likely conclude–or not–with the feature-length story “Art is Dark and Full of Horrors.”
For this show, Artemio works under the premise that a good joke works if you laugh at yourself (or not). WIth this in mind, he presents this show in the context of Art Week in Mexico, which is the perfect mo- ment to do it (or not).
The show “Decent Works” functions as a sarcastic commentary (or not) on exhibitions of mid-career artists, like Artemio, which tend to use as their title the artist’s name accompanied by the title “Recent Works,” a title that ultimately means nothing (or does).
This kind of exhibition tends to display a compilation of works, usually identified as “Recent Works,” that generally are disparate or orphaned works (or not) in the artist’s practice, which can function on the art market (or not) and that are displayed simply to fill a space in an institution’s calendar (or not).
Artemio prefers to poke fun at all this (or not) and present a solid show (or not) with iconic work (or not), together with old ideas postponed by laziness (or not) and a selection of decent works, or recent works, or maybe both, or maybe neither.
It is within this critical moment in every artist’s career–or not–that Artemio, with his typical shrewdness, manipulates and defies his own relevance (or not) within the (eco)system of the art world.
Mateo Spengler
