Gonzalo Lebrija’s first solo exhibition in the U.S. will be a four-day screening of LIGHTS ON. The video will be shown at I-20 on only the days of September 6, and September 9-11.
Lebrija, who is based in Mexico, was invited last winter to an artists workshop in Egypt. He arrived in Cairo on March 20th and continued on to the workshop in Neweiba, in the South Sinai desert on the Gulf of Aqaba.
The serenity of this idyllic seaside location was interrupted by coverage on Al-Jazeera TV of the beginning of the war, with round-the-clock broadcasts in the workshop’s dining room; the fading in and out of the sounds of American B-52’s flying overhead to Iraq; and sudden cottage lock-ups on account of sandstorms in the Sinai. The resulting work, LIGHTS ON, was made on the day before the artist’s departure back to Mexico. The mood of the video is benign and tranquil, and belies the tension and a sense of expectation beneath the surface.
In Mexico City, Lebrija’s works have been shown at the Jumex Collection, the Museo de Arte Moderno, Programa Art Center, the Museo de Arte Carillo Gil, and the Enrique Guerrero Gallery. He has been in group shows at the San Diego Art Museum, and the Americas Society and Apex Art in New York. He is a founder and co-director of Oficina Para Proyectos de Arte (OPA), a non-profit exhibition space in Guadalajara.