Modulaciones strives to highlight the dynamism of painting, proposing dialogues between works from different eras and contexts. The exhibition includes over a hundred pieces, laying out formal, generational, geographical and personal intersections in order to propose new analytic perspectives and especially to think about this medium from its current standpoint.

The title of the exhibition alludes to the modulations generated in painting over the course of its history, which has been marked by debates between different positions. For example, certain periods have privileged figuration —that is to say, the representation of reality— while in others, different forms of geometrical, expressionist, informal or even conceptual abstraction have prevailed, prioritizing ideas over aesthetic outcomes. Despite these variations, there are interests, genres and languages that are present throughout. The exhibition refers to these by way of different sections: namely, Portrait and Figure; Spatial Dislocations; Scenes and Stages; Integration of the Object; Monochromy and Language; Landscape; Abstraction; and finally Paint and Matter.

Without adhering to a strictly chronological or geographical order, the show puts historical works like that of the Mexican Julio Ruelas, made in 1898, in relation to contemporary artists like Francis Alÿs and Julian Opie, in order to reflect on portraiture, one of painting’s most traditional genres, and its possibilities. Elsewhere, the show includes pieces by young Mexican artists like Cynthia Gutiérrez, establishing a correspondence with iconic pieces from the twentieth century, including those of the Italian-Argentine Lucio Fontana, in order to explore jointly the way in which monochromy has been tackled, as well as the spatial limits of painting itself. These dialogs between different generations of painters from different latitudes help to understand painting as a medium undergoing constant transformation.

Modulaciones reflects on the changes in painting’s production processes and function, with the aim of thinking about this discipline not as an independent act, but rather as a means of interaction, as a way of expressing a particular stance and even as way to reflect on painting itself and the way in which it has been produced in recent years, forever relevant in artistic discourse.

• Curatorship: Graciela Kasep
• Artists: Ignasi Aballi, Matt Ager, Francis Alÿs, Carlos Amorales, Tauba Auerbach, John Baldessari, Adolfo Best Maugard, Joe Bradley, Lilia Carrillo, Julio Castellanos, Dan Colen, Brady Dollarhide, Trenton Doyle Hancock, David Ellis, Shepard Fairey, Gabriel Fernández, Lucio Fontana, Gunther Forg, Julio Galán, Mario García Torres, Theaster Gates, Os Gemeos, Gunther Gerzso, Alberto Gironella, Manuel González Serrano, Doze Green, Jesús Guerrero Galván, Cynthia Gutiérrez, Daniel Guzmán, Enrique Guzmán, Saturnino Herrán, Alex Hubbard, Cisco Jiménez, Guillermo Kuitca, Joy Laville, Zhou Li, Richard Long, Mark Manders, Jason Martin, Ryan McGinness, Carlos Mérida, Alfonso Michel, Beatriz Milhazes, Roberto Montenegro, Moris, Sarah Morris, Albert Oehlen, Hélio Oiticica, Gabriel Orozco, José Clemente Orozco, Sigmar Polke, R.H. Quaytman, Neo Rauch, Robert Rauschenberg, Manuel Rodríguez Lozano, Julio Ruelas, Ed Ruscha, Francis Ruyter, David Salle, Wilhelm Sasnal, Santiago Sierra, Jesús Rafael Soto, Ettore Spalletti, Vivian Suter, Tam Van Tran, Francisco Toledo, Cordelia Urueta, Ned Vena, Germán Venegas, Terry Winters, Liat Yossifor, Alfredo Zalce, Nahúm B. Zenil.
• Museo de Arte de Sinaloa and Galería Antonio López Sanz, Culiacan, Mexico from December 1, 2017 to February 25, 2018
• Museo de Arte de Zapopan, Mexico from April 27th, 2018 to September 30th, 2018
• To visit the exhibition’s site
• To watch the virtual tour of the exhibition at the Museo de Arte de Zapopan