Pablo López Luz - Photographs London Wednesday, October 31, 2018 | Phillips
  • Exhibited

    México Contemporáneo, Fototeca Latinoamericana, Buenos Aires, 15 June - 13 August 2017, another
    Civilization: The Way We Live Now, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Gwacheon, 18 October 2018 - 17 February 2019, another

  • Literature

    P. López Luz, Frontera, Buenos Aires: Photogramas Editions, 2017, n.p.
    W. A. Ewing & H. Roussell, Civilization: The Way We Live Now, Gwacheon: National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, to be published October 2018

  • Catalogue Essay

    Pablo López Luz started photographing the Mexico-US border in 2014. Over four helicopter rides, he documented 2,000 km of land from both sides, covering the territory between San Diego and El Paso. For this project, López Luz was interested in the border wall as the main narrative element behind the photographs, reflecting his continued preoccupation with man’s relationship to the landscape.

    In the present lot, taken from the US side, we see the border between Tijuana and San Diego. Almost 50 million people cross this border each year, making it the busiest land-border crossing in the world. Yet López Luz presents it void of human presence. The subliminal mountains fill the frame with seemingly endless swathes of green and brown, divided by a thin line, as if it has been drawn on the landscape. Rather than emphasising the border as an area of conflict, the artist aims to reinterpret this man-made line by stripping everything else away to focus on the physicality of the landscape.

    Chapman university Art Collection holds another print from this edition. The National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico; CA and Televisa Foundation each holds another print from this series.

    Pablo López Luz explores the relationship between humans and their environment in his photography. He experiments with vantage points and framing, challenging how we engage with a landscape. López Luz studied at the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City before completing a master’s degree in Visual Art at NYU in 2006. López Luz has exhibited at a number of institutions, including the ICP, New York and Fondation Cartier, Paris and his work is held at the Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City and SFMOMA.

  • Artist Biography

    Pablo López Luz

    Mexican • 1979

    Pablo López Luz reinterprets the Mexican landscape in his photography, focusing on the implicit human presence within these environments. López Luz studied at the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City before completing a master’s degree in Visual Art at NYU in 2006. In 2005, he was awarded the prestigious Velázquez grant from the Spanish government. He has exhibited at a number of institutions, including the ICP, New York and Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, Paris and his work is held at Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City and SFMOMA.

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LATIN AMERICA

35

San Diego - Tijuana XI, Frontera USA-Mexico

2015
Chromogenic print, flush-mounted.
Image: 143 x 119.5 cm (56 1/4 x 47 in.)
Frame: 151 x 127.5 cm (59 1/2 x 50 1/4 in.)

Signed in ink, printed title, date and number AP2 on an artist label affixed to the reverse of the frame. From the sold-out edition of 6 + 2 APs.

Estimate
£8,000 - 12,000 

Sold for £11,875

Contact Specialist
Genevieve Janvrin
Co-Head of Photographs, Europe
+33 1 53 71 77 87

Yuka Yamaji
Co-Head of Photographs, Europe
+44 20 7318 4098

Photographs

London Auction 1 November 2018