JP@SCAD
Through a wide-ranging practice that includes sculpture, installation, painting, design, and built environments, SCAD deFINE ART 2023 honoree Jorge Pardo upends distinctions between function and fine art. With an emphasis on craftsmanship, the artist creates opulent interventions for both the public and private spheres that challenge the expectations of designed objects and spaces.
In this exhibition of new work, Pardo places familiar, everyday items within the formal setting of the art space, transforming their quotidian uses within a grand installation that reflects the power of aesthetic principles to inform our thinking and behavior.
Alive with color and form, hand-blown glass pendant lamps are suspended from the museum ceiling and scattered in a glowing spectrum that spans more than 100 feet. Responding to the unique length of the gallery, Pardo also situates a new large-scale textile within the space.
Collaging a singular image from previous paintings, the artist remixes his work into a monumental digital print presented on a massive table assembled from wood panels that have been intricately carved in abstract patterns based on mangrove roots. Through the careful placement of these elements in the gallery, Pardo questions inherent notions and emphasizes the relationship between art and life.
Jorge Pardo explores the intersection of contemporary painting, design, sculpture, and architecture, transforming familiar objects into artworks with multiple meanings and purposes. Pardo employs a broad palette of vibrant colors, eclectic patterns, and natural and industrial materials. Mediating across scales, he treats entire public spaces as vast canvases, engaging viewers with works that produce great visual delight while questioning distinctions between fine art and quotidian design.
Pardo’s work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at venues including Pinacoteca de Estado São Paulo; Hacienda la Rojeña, Tequila, Mexico; Victoria Miro, London; Petzel, New York; joségarcía ,mx, Mérida, Mexico; David Gill Gallery, London; Musée des Augustins, Toulouse, France; neugerriemschneider, Berlin; Gagosian Gallery, New York; Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin; K21 Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf, Germany; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; and Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami.
Pardo’s work is held in numerous public collections including the Centre Pompidou, Paris; Tate Modern, London; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam, the Netherlands; Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; and The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Pardo is the recipient of many honors including a MacArthur Fellowship, the Smithsonian American Art Museum Lucelia Artist Award, and the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award.
