GABRIEL CHAILE: NO SE ME QUITA LO NACO
SEPTEMBER 2023 — JANUARY 2024
Through the synthesis of sculptural and social practices, Gabriel Chaile (b. 1985; Argentina) creates communal spaces where material histories, cultural heritage, and contemporary life interact. Known for his large-scale anthropomorphic sculptures crafted from adobe clay, Chaile engages with the archaeological and ethnographic narratives embedded within traditional ceramic artifacts across the northwestern region of his native Argentina. Often referencing pre-Columbian vessels used for nourishment and gathering, such as pots and clay ovens, Chaile traces how the visual accumulation of objects that have survived to the present day enact a symbol of resistance to colonial legacies of erasure and suppression.
Through the synthesis of sculptural and social practices, Gabriel Chaile (b. 1985; Argentina) creates communal spaces where material histories, cultural heritage, and contemporary life interact. Known for his large-scale anthropomorphic sculptures crafted from adobe clay, Chaile engages with the archaeological and ethnographic narratives embedded within traditional ceramic artifacts across the northwestern region of his native Argentina. Often referencing pre-Columbian vessels used for nourishment and gathering, such as pots and clay ovens, Chaile traces how the visual accumulation of objects that have survived to the present day enact a symbol of resistance to colonial legacies of erasure and suppression.
Comprised of a single monumental work that activates the inner and outer structure of Meridiano in Puerto Escondido, Chaile presents his first ever black monochromatic sculpture. The new site-specific installation crafted alongside local artisans develops on the artist’s recent sculptural presentations at the Venice Biennale in The Milk of Dreams (2022), the New Museum Triennial (2021), and Studio Voltaire (2023).
Comprised of a single monumental work that activates the inner and outer structure of Meridiano in Puerto Escondido, Chaile presents his first ever black monochromatic sculpture. The new site-specific installation crafted alongside local artisans develops on the artist’s recent sculptural presentations at the Venice Biennale in The Milk of Dreams (2022), the New Museum Triennial (2021), and Studio Voltaire (2023).
In No se me quita lo naco Chaile uses a black- pigmented clay extracted from the soil of Agua Zarca, a local Oaxacan town, engaging with long-held family traditional practices. The work marks an aesthetic departure from the artist’s signature terra cotta surfaces, in keeping with Meridiano’s mission of inviting artists to make use of the unique site as an opportunity for experimentation.
Reaching through and beyond the rectangular atrium of Meridiano, which remains open to the sun and stars, the height of Chaile’s columnar chimney both receives and interacts with the specificities of Meridiano’s structure and surrounding landscape. As a continuance of ancestral craft, Chaile’s intervention echoes the site as a type of vessel with shared sculptural properties that correspond to the built environment’s form, space, and sacred architecture. Nested within its interior, the vessel emerges from the inner chamber of the gallery toward the sky. Expanding upon the artist’s interest in ritual objects and spaces, the installation emphasizes the metaphoric dualities between light and dark,earth and sky, and inner and outer realms.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Gabriel Chaile (b. 1985) was born and raised in Tucumán, Argentina. He lives / works in Lisbon, Portugal. Chaile studied Plastic Art
s at the National University of Tucumán, in northern Argentina. He took part in the first Artist Programme of the Torcuato Di Tella University in Buenos Aires (2009) and taught at the Liliana Maresca de Villa Florito Junior High School and led art workshops in Villa Soldati, Buenos Aires. He serves as the Artistic Director of NVS, an evolving exhibition platform founded in Buenos Aires and based in Lisbon, which adopts necessary formats to allow for individual and collective artistic projects.
Among his most relevant works, recent exhibitions include The wind blows where it wishes, curated by Cecilia Alemani (High Line, New York, 2023); Será por tiempo, tiempos, y la mitad de un tiempo (BARRO, New York, 2023); Migrantes são bem-vindos (Kunsthalle Lissabon, Lisbon, 2022); The Milk of Dreams curated by Cecilia Alemani, (59th International Art Exhibition, Venice Biennale, Venice, 2022); Anozero curated by Elfi Turpin and Filipa Oliveira (Coimbra Contemporary Art Biennale, Portugal, 2022); Soft Water Hard Stone curated by Margot Norton and Jamillah James (New Museum Triennal, New Museum, New York, 2021); Pés de Barro curated by Chús Martínez and Filipa Ramos (Galeria Municipal o Porto, Portugal, 2021); Esta canción ya tuvo aplausos (ChertLudde, Berlin 2019); Genealogía de la forma curated by Andrea Fernández (Barro, Buenos Aires, 2019); Diego, curated by Cecilia Alemani (Art Basel Cities, Buenos Aires, 2018); Sonia (El ondulatorio, La Rioja, 2018); Patricia, curted by Laura Hackel (Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, 2017); Mi nombre es legión porque somos muchos (Centro Cultural San Pablo T, Tucumán, 2016); No es culpa mía si viene del río (Centro Cultural Recoleta, Buenos Aires, 2015); Salir del surco al labrar la tierra, delirios de grandeza II (Fondo Nacional de las Artes, Buenos Aires, 2014).
Gabriel Chaile (b. 1985) was born and raised in Tucumán, Argentina. He lives / works in Lisbon, Portugal. Chaile studied Plastic Art
s at the National University of Tucumán, in northern Argentina. He took part in the first Artist Programme of the Torcuato Di Tella University in Buenos Aires (2009) and taught at the Liliana Maresca de Villa Florito Junior High School and led art workshops in Villa Soldati, Buenos Aires. He serves as the Artistic Director of NVS, an evolving exhibition platform founded in Buenos Aires and based in Lisbon, which adopts necessary formats to allow for individual and collective artistic projects.
Among his most relevant works, recent exhibitions include The wind blows where it wishes, curated by Cecilia Alemani (High Line, New York, 2023); Será por tiempo, tiempos, y la mitad de un tiempo (BARRO, New York, 2023); Migrantes são bem-vindos (Kunsthalle Lissabon, Lisbon, 2022); The Milk of Dreams curated by Cecilia Alemani, (59th International Art Exhibition, Venice Biennale, Venice, 2022); Anozero curated by Elfi Turpin and Filipa Oliveira (Coimbra Contemporary Art Biennale, Portugal, 2022); Soft Water Hard Stone curated by Margot Norton and Jamillah James (New Museum Triennal, New Museum, New York, 2021); Pés de Barro curated by Chús Martínez and Filipa Ramos (Galeria Municipal o Porto, Portugal, 2021); Esta canción ya tuvo aplausos (ChertLudde, Berlin 2019); Genealogía de la forma curated by Andrea Fernández (Barro, Buenos Aires, 2019); Diego, curated by Cecilia Alemani (Art Basel Cities, Buenos Aires, 2018); Sonia (El ondulatorio, La Rioja, 2018); Patricia, curted by Laura Hackel (Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, 2017); Mi nombre es legión porque somos muchos (Centro Cultural San Pablo T, Tucumán, 2016); No es culpa mía si viene del río (Centro Cultural Recoleta, Buenos Aires, 2015); Salir del surco al labrar la tierra, delirios de grandeza II (Fondo Nacional de las Artes, Buenos Aires, 2014).
Meridiano is situated on the Oaxacan coast in Puerto Escondido, Mexico, offering an open framework for long-form, site-specific, and experimental exhibitions of artwork by artists working internationally and across disciplines. Founded by Nicholas Olney and Boris Vervoordt on the principles of dialogue and exchange, Meridiano’s contemporary art programming will be realized over two exhibitions per year.
