Mark Whalen

Time on my hands an exhibition by Mark Whalen at Casa Gilardi presented by Saenger Galería.

Mark Whalen’s latest show Time on my hands, is his first solo exhibition in Mexico City. Mark’s versatile and interdisciplinary practice is characterized by his distinctive maquettes rendered in bold, expansive fields of color. Casa Gilardi’s playfulness: its deep reds the color of Mexican sweets, the swimming pool’s magenta wall added for pleasure, and brightly painted walls smoothed down to give the illusion of light, is reflected in Whalen’s florescent hues, comical facial characteristics, and body language. Whalen’s sculptures explore the everyday. Exaggerated facial expressions create an overarching narrative: each body part belongs to a single fictional protagonist, cumulating to represent the vast spectrum of human emotion. Much like Barragan has centered the domestic Casa Gilardi around the jacaranda tree, Whalen has paired these human-like figurations with everyday household items, thus encouraging us to explore uncanny relationships between object and person. As Barragán’s purple wall in the courtyard mimics the shade of the jacaranda flowers, and the blue walls in the front courtyard reflect the sky above, Whalen in turn beautifully mirrors the house’s unique elements of light, colour and texture.

Mark Whalen has exhibited extensively internationally, including at Centro de Arte Contemporáneo de Málaga, Spain; Museum of Contemporary Art Macro, Italy; National Gallery of Australia, Australia; National Gallery of Victoria, Australia; Over the Influence, United States/Hong Kong/Thailand; Arsham Fieg Gallery, United States; Merry Karnowsky Gallery, United States; Pop68/ Ruttowski 68, Germany; Sophie Gannon Gallery, Australia; Chalk Horse Gallery, Australia; and Sanderson Contemporary Art, New Zealand. His work is held in public and private collections in Australia, the United States and internationally.

Mark Whalen (B. 1982, Sydney, Australia)

Lives and Works in Los Angeles, California, USA. Mark Whalen’s versatile and interdisciplinary practice explores sculpture, painting and video with scales ranging from small table-based works to large immersive sculptures. Whalen’s maquettes are realised in the digital realm, intentionally without gender or physical body, then fabricated with polyurethane and chrome on cast aluminium and spray-painted. In fluorescent hues, the distinctive and exaggerated facial characteristics and body language are comical, while concurrently shifting under the weight of social anxieties. The resulting figurations are part of an overarching narrative: each body part belongs to a single fictional protagonist, cumulating to represent the vast spectrum of human emotion.

Mark Whalen has exhibited extensively internationally, including at Centro de Arte Contemporáneo de Málaga, Spain; Museum of Contemporary Art Macro, Italy; National Gallery of Australia, Australia; National Gallery of Victoria, Australia; Over the Influence, United States/Hong Kong/Thailand; Arsham Fieg Gallery, United States; Merry Karnowsky Gallery, United States; Pop68/ Ruttowski 68, Germany; Sophie Gannon Gallery, Australia; Chalk Horse Gallery, Australia; and Sanderson Contemporary Art, New Zealand, amongst others. His work is held in public and private collections in Australia, the United States and internationally.

Casa Gilardi located in the San Miguel Chapultepec neighborhood of Mexico City is the last project built and designed by Mexican architect Luis Barragán in 1976, when he was 80 years old. It is considered a classic example of the influential architect’s work in combining the Mexican vernacular with the vivid use of European modernism, thus forming part of his architectural testament.

The house was commissioned by Pancho Gilardi and Martín Luque partners in an advertising agency, after Barragán had formally retired. Barragán accepted the commission attracted by two conditions of the project: the enormous Jacarandá tree that should be kept on the site, and the swimming pool requested by the owners as part of the program.

Its main characteristic lies not only in its architecture but in the multitude of sensations that its spaces offer, through the games of lights, colors, distribution, and architectural elements, such as the staircase without railing that seems to levitate under overhead light. A yellow light that passes through small vertical openings, floods the corridor that reaches a minimalist space with a reflecting pool next to the dining room, where a red painted wall supports the skylight.

— Saenger Galería

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