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    Darío Escobar

    focus26

     

    April 17 – MAY 2, 2026

    Glentevej, Copenhagen, DK

     

     

    • Darío Escobar Construcción Geométrica Nº 5, 2014 Wood, iron and paint
      Darío Escobar
      Construcción Geométrica Nº 5, 2014
      Wood, iron and paint
      Inquire
  • Darío Escobar’s Construcción Geométrica Nº 5 can be seen as a mediated abstraction. The main idea is to investigate the concept of an abstract standard and geometric consciousness. The work is a wooden truck panel from Guatemala that becomes a mediated, abstracted object while still retaining traces of its original context.
     
    It consists of wooden truck panels that form a structure attached to the wall. Hinges make some of them movable, while others are fixed in place. The geometric designs are created with oil-based paint and are inspired by fields of pure color, ranging from adjacent to complementary tones. These types of truck bodies are commonly found on trucks that carry fruit, vegetables, textiles, and other goods from the Guatemalan provinces to the capital city, supporting much of the country’s economy.
     
    The work forms part of a larger series and uses the same techniques, both in chromatic palette and in formal and structural aspects, as those employed in carpentry workshops that build and decorate panels for commercial trucks. It investigates the concept of an abstract standard and geometric consciousness in a country like Guatemala, where ideas of progress and modernity remain complex and unresolved.
     
    Across much of Latin America, geometric art is carried out with notable effectiveness. This can be understood in relation to the fusion of different modes of thought rooted in pre-Hispanic history, alongside an approach to interpreting reality through pure color and form. These truck panels become geometric reliefs in which chromatic, formal, and structural elements combine, prompting reflection on whether modernism is still to come or whether it may have already arrived without being fully recognized.

  • Darío Escobar Born in Guatemala City, GT, 1971 Lives and works in Guatemala City, GT and Mexico City, MX Darío...
    Photo: Arenovski

    Darío Escobar

    Born in Guatemala City, GT, 1971 
    Lives and works in Guatemala City, GT and Mexico City, MX

     

    Darío Escobar’s practice is a formal and conceptual exploration of commonplace objects and their insertion into the fields of visual arts and art history. Meant to ignite a reflection in the viewer, to reconsider key relations in contemporary life, such as our bonds to mass culture, the elaboration of identity-based consumption, and the distinction between high and low culture. Escobar has since the early 90’s used ready-mades; a wide array of industrial and everyday consumption objects that range from McDonald’s paper cups to vulcanized tires and several types of sports gear to reflect upon our place within the social, political, and economic systems that sustain our existence.

     

    Escobar was in 2020 awarded the "Carlos Mérida”, the highest artistic distinction in Guatemala by the Ministry of Culture of Guatemala. In 2022 Escobar presented a solo exhibition at the Nacional de Arte MUNAL in Mexico City, where his works was placed in the museum’s permanent exhibition, thus engaging and bringing a new perspective to their collection, in celebration of its 40th anniversary. The show, titled La palabra es de plata, el silencio de oro, was accompanied by a richly illustrated catalog of the same name. His work has also been the subject of institutional solo exhibitions at MAC – Museo de arte Contemporáneo de Santiago, Santiago de Chile; SCAD – Museum of Art, Savannah, Georgia; Museo Nacional de Arte Moderno Carlos Mérida, Guatemala City; CCM – Centro Cultural Metropolitano, Guatemala City; CCEG – Centro Cultural de España Guatemala, Guatemala City; and MADC – Museo de Arte y Diseño Contemporáneo, San José.

     

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    For inquiries, please contact: inquiry@nilsstaerk.dk