What images can do is an individual exhibition by José Antonio Navarrete conceived for Artmedia Gallery as a photographic installation. It is also the first show by this author, who has conducted his career primarily within the fields of research, criticism, and curatorship of both visual arts and visual culture.

In this exhibition, Navarrete gathers images he has produced within the last two years and combines them, based on a pre-existing plan, according to the discursive logic of the photographic series. In other words, even though they were shot in locations with very dissimilar geographies —from New York to Miami, in the United States, and from Montevideo to Santo Domingo, in Latin America, to name a few—, all the photographs are articulated according to the rules of analogy and difference which characterize this model of art practice. The series is complemented with and related to a concise selection of photographs by José Tabío (1915-1975), a sophisticated artist —unknown in the international sphere— whose work is inscribed into modern photography. Tabío applied his creativity to photography and cinematography in his native Cuba.

The chief strategy Navarrete employed in this project was, from its inception, to explore opacity as a characteristic of direct photography that is very fruitful in the production of meanings: that is to say, to investigate meaning as a social construction. What images can do, according to this line of thought, has paid attention to how images are organized and publicly articulated, as well as how the conditions and contexts of their diffusion influence on their reception. Therefore, this visual essay enables the emergence of very different associations —even with traditional art genres—,  while it simultaneously problematizes the comprehension of direct photography as a contemporary artistic practice.

Artmedia Gallery is exceptionally pleased to present this exhibition.

About the author:

José Antonio Navarrete is interested in exploring the limits between curatorial and artistic practices. In this line of thought, he presented During four hours, co-curated with Marcos Valella (Buenavista Building, Miami, July 6th, 2012, The Nigthclub). He has written texts on the subject. On November 21st, 2013, the Museo Nacional de Artes Visuales de Montevideo inaugurated, under his curatorship, the group exhibition En el lugar de lo dicho. Exploraciones en el archivo discursivo de la fotografía, sponsored by the Centro de Fotografía.

About the gallery:

Artmedia Gallery was founded in 2012. Located at the Wynwood Art District in Miami, Florida, the gallery’s mission is to exhibit and promote contemporary art. One of the gallery’s central objectives is to explore the vast possibilities of the expanded notion of art through technography media, with photography and video as the core of its interest.

Artmedia Gallery’s exhibition program follows rigorous curatorial criteria, providing a space for reflection and critique. The exhibitions include local and around the world artists with a wide range of subjectivities and poetics that enrich the current sensibility.