In 1972, when Einar and Jamex de la Torre have been 9 and 12 years outdated respectively, their household moved to Southern California from their hometown of Guadalajara, Mexico. Drawing on their immigrant experiences and the typically contradictory aspects of bicultural identification, the artists started creating sculptures and installations that discover themes as diverse as time, faith, traditions, and regionalism.
The pair have been collaborating because the 1990s, combining blown glass and combined media in large-scale wall items and putting public artwork. Within the expansive exhibition Colloidoscope: from Torre Brothers Retro-Perspective on the Corning Museum of Glass, the pair presents 40 works spanning almost three many years.
Included within the showcase is a monumental new fee entitled “Meteorit dall' Influenza Veneziana”, which pulls on the wealthy historical past of Venetian or Murano glass.
Whereas solely items produced on the small Italian island can bear the Murano title—assume champagne on the earth of wine or Parmigiano Reggiano for cheese—the Torre brothers enjoy the concept “as soon as [the technique] it escaped, it hit the glass world like a meteorite,” says Einar.
The Torre brothers are recognized for his or her additive strategy, layering each that means and materials into meticulous assemblages. Vibrant colours and typically ironic particulars, such because the symbols of a automobile battery or engine gentle, pop when encountered up shut, then dissolve into energetic patterns when seen from a distance.
At present, the 2 cut up their time between San Diego and the Guadalupe Valley in Baja California, Mexico, and the occasional humorous interaction of American and Mexican motifs holds a sustained function of their observe. Many items incorporate motifs particular to Mexico, equivalent to the enduring, round Aztec calendar, which mixes a 365-day cycle with a 260-day ritual or religious cycle. Mechanical gears, shells, spiritual iconography, anatomy and extra, merge into their maximalist compilations.
The brothers created the brand new work within the studio of the Corning Museum, and the concept to include Venetian particulars just like the cane work arose organically across the sizzling store crew's expertise with the model. “It's an artist's job to get away with their imaginative and prescient,” says Einar, “and we have been more than happy and stunned by how a lot assist we had for our concepts for this fee.”
Colidoscope continues via January 5 in Corning, New York. Discover extra on the artists web site.
