Tomas Rivas Left to My Own Devices

DOUZ AND MILLE is proud to present the sculpture of Tomás Rivas in the solo exhibition Left to my Own Devices. Rivas’s work explores the interplay between two-dimensional and three-dimensional space through decorative drawing and carving into the wall, revealing multiple surface layers. This installation will have three components: the gallery walls and wall board panels incised with architectural motifs, and a new series of free-standing drapery forms evoking classical marble sculpture, but modeled in ephemeral sugar paste. References to antiquity are as much about how sources are corrupted as about the roots of Western culture.

Playing with linear perspective, ornamentation, and unorthodox materials, Rivas’s work also investigates how the viewer’s cultural expectations frame perception.

Tomás Rivas (b.1975, Santiago, Chile) received a B.F.A. and Post-baccalaureate from Universidad Católica in Santiago and an M.F.A. from the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, with additional studies in Italy. He was awarded the 2005 Outstanding Student Achievement in Sculpture by the International Sculpture Center and a 2006 Scope Emerging Artist Grant. Recent group exhibits are Barroco Contemporáneo (Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, Santiago), Conversions (WPA/Corcoran juried exhibition, The Ellipse Arts Center, Arlington, VA), and The Phantom Floor (Catholic University, Washington DC). Upcoming exhibits include Galería A Gentil Carioca (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), ArteBA (Buenos Aires, Argentina) and Centro Cultural Matucana 100 (Santiago).

ROUND TABLE DISCUSSION WITH THE ARTIST: Wednesday, April 25, 2007 6:30pm

A full color catalogue will be published at the conclusion of the exhibition, featuring essays by David Gariff Ph.D., Lecturer, National Gallery of Art; Robin Rhodes Ph.D., Associate Professor, University of Notre Dame; and Laura Roulet, Independent Curator, with an introduction by Rody Douzoglou.

DOUZ AND MILLE promotes emerging contemporary artists through independent
curatorial projects in a variety of spaces.

5602 McLean Drive, Bethesda, Maryland 20814
p. 301-980-9574
www.douzandmille.com

For more information, please contact Rody Douzoglou at 301-980-9574.
e. rody@douzandmille.com