Affordable Art Fair Preview
Francisco Donoso, Trace 15, 2021, Acrylic and spray paint on paper, 15x22 inches, framed.
We are less than one week away from the opening night of Affordable Art Fair NYC Spring Edition. If someone told me in 2019 that I would be exhibiting at the fair with my own gallery I don’t know how I would react. To start, I would have been busy planning for the fair from the other side of the box office. Now after a rollercoaster of a year, life has brought me through an interesting journey and back again to the Metropolitan Pavilion, to share artwork which inspires me and I hope fills you with the same feelings of hope and a story rewritten; as Domingo Comms presents Francisco Donoso’s Playground from May 19 - 23.
Playground is an exhibition of new works by transnational artist Francisco Donoso. The exhibition presents a site-specific mural installation titled Homegrown, works on paper Linked (large) and Trace (small), and works on canvas titled Fenced which will be available to purchase with Domingo Comms.
With this exhibition, Francisco Donoso has created a site for belonging, for expression, for that inner child to exist, to play, to be curious, to feel, a site of possibility, to question, to experiment, to be, to learn, to explore. The playground is a form of altermundo. The playground is also a site of surveillance, witness, and paranoia where children are watched by their parents and guardians, surveilled, kept, and sometimes an ominous site of imaginary loss and violence. To be in a playground evokes memories of childhood, which are mixed memories of happiness, innocence and play, but also traumas, loss and isolation.
Linked 6, 2021, Acrylic and spray paint on paper, 22x30 inches, Unframed, $1,100
Fenced 3, 2021, Acrylic and spray paint on canvas, 20 x 24 x 1.5 inches, $2,100
Trace 9, 2021, Acrylic and spray paint on paper, 15x22 inches, Unframed, $550
Chain-link fences have taken on new meaning for Donoso as a consequence of the current and ongoing deluge of photographs of detention centers and people in cages. The image of the fence is burned into his psyche as representative of borders that keep families apart, borders that keep him trapped in the US, and borders that threaten the sustainability of life for immigrants at large. The fence has also come to represent the isolation and dislocation many experienced during quarantine as a result of the pandemic. While it is not a new experience for some, many families experienced separation and confinement for the first time and are now grappling with the realities of the ‘new normal’.
The mural installation Homegrown consists of 7 panels of mylar, each measuring approximately 36in x 120in. When the panels are installed together on a slight overlap, they reveal a 10ft tall by 20ft wide mural, which will cover the main space of the Domingo Comms booth at the fair.
From afar, the mural is a seductive abstract painting of saturated color, movement and form. It’s not until you’re up close to the large-scale work that you realize you’re looking at an overall chain-link fence pattern.
Donoso came to explore this subject matter to process his own experience as an undocumented person in the US. His inner child reveals itself throughout the making process to find healing. The parts of his childhood that were muted, detained, and taken as a result of migration and dislocation have space to grow, play and be acknowledged.
The privilege I have to share this work in New York City, amongst friends, family, other artists and galleries from around the country, former colleagues, and more, is not lost on me and I feel so honored. I’m grateful to the Affordable Art Fair team for their support and welcoming spirit and can’t wait to be back again at what feels like a spiritual home for both myself and now, Domingo Comms.
Please join us next week from the Private View and all weekend long. $10 off General Admission tickets and more details can be found on the Events page.
