manuel arturo abreu

Image Description: Abreu’s site-specific work uses crushed oyster shell powder to line the periphery of the entire gallery. The white powder is assembled into a line that is about an inch thick along the base of the walls of the gallery floor. It permeates the entire exhibition, weaving in and out of other artworks throughout the space.

Curatorial Description: manuel arturo abreu describes themself as a “non-disciplinary artist.” Their practice is at the intersection of poetry, visual art, performance art, and critical theory. Untitled (Herramienta de concha) is a site-specific installation made of crushed oyster shell powder that lines the periphery of the gallery. abreu’s use of decomposed organic materials is a recurring motif within their work as they explore various cultural references to ceremony, altar-making, and ritual. The work’s title, which translates to “Untitled (Shell Tool),” suggests that the work may be seen as a kind of “tool.” abreu’s installation permeates the entire exhibition space, both physically and metaphorically, and illuminates the ways in which ritual may offer the tools of protection, survival, connection, and transformation.

About

manuel arturo abreu (born 1991, Santo Domingo) is a non-disciplinary artist who lives and works on unceded lands of Multnomah, Cowlitz, Clackamas, Chinook, Kalapuya, Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, and other First People of the Pacific Northwest. abreu works with what is at hand in a process of magical thinking with attention to ritual aspects of aesthetics. Since 2015, they have co-facilitated home school, a free pop-up art school and space of sacred duty in the Pacific Northwest that has been in residence at Yale Union (2019) and Oregon Contemporary (2023). abreu has recently included projects in exhibitions at Kraupa- Tuskany Zeidler (Berlin), Kunstverein München (Munich), Palazzo San Giuseppe (Polignano a Mare, Italy), Halle Für Kunst Steiermark (Graz, Austria), Kunstraum Niederösterreich (Vienna), Veronica (Seattle), and the Athens Biennial 7. They have recently published articles with The Kitchen (NYC) and the Institute for Studies on Latin American Art (NYC), and catalogue contributions for Star Feliz (Printed Matter), Dozie Kanu (Neuer Essener Kunstverein), and Hervé Télémaque (Serpentine Gallery).