About the Exhibit

Juan Muñoz’s exhibit of sculptures at Skarstedt Gallery’s 79th street location was on view from September 14 to November 16, 2019. 

“Muñoz choreographs our participation within the gallery, both inviting and rejecting interaction, his three-dimensional tableaux in bronze and resin raising questions about the nature of looking and being” (source) 

Muñoz’s works are strategically positioned high up so that the viewer must look up and walk around the works to see them from multiple angles.

These different angles change the context of the work, for example a trio of laughing individuals transfer from spectacle to the observers of a spectacle (you) as the viewer moves closer. 

“Playing with the notion of spectatorship, the interior space of the gallery becomes an arena in which the figures are simultaneously watching and being watched.” (source) 

Theatre and drama are all key themes in Juan Muñoz’s work. 

“It should… remain separate from you. So no matter how much you look at it, it’s still outside of you… What’s interesting in theater is that you cannot answer back. And then the curtains close and you leave. A piece should have that capacity, that you cannot answer back to it”  - Juan Muñoz (source) 

About the Artist - Juan Muñoz

Juan Muñoz was born in Madrid. He studied at the Central School of Art and Design, London, the Croydon School of Art, and the Pratt Graphic Center, New York.

“My characters sometimes behave as a mirror that cannot reflect. They are there to tell you something about your looking, but they cannot because they don’t let you see yourself.” - Juan Muñoz (source) 

Muñoz is best known for his bronze sculptures as well as his drawings.