Ignacio Perez Meruane presents two new works created on site by applying plaster texture directly onto the walls of the exhibition space. These works are at once grounded in the exhibition while referring to displacements towards external locales. In one such work, the proportions of the artist’s northeast studio wall are transposed at 1:3 scale onto the gallery’s northeast corner, thus positioning both spaces and the viewer in geographic relation to one another. These works are created by an addition of the same material (plaster, which is derived from gypsum) as the gallery walls (gypsum board), and then coated with the same paint regularly used to coat the walls of the space. The works are therefore embedded in the gallery walls, temporarily changing their topography. 

In addition to these works, Perez Meruane presents four wall-mounted sculptures cast from gypsum cement. Embedded in the surface of these works are gypsum crystals from various geographical locations. The title of each work is derived from the common crystal name and area of origin. In some instances, a crystal’s place of origin is known with some certainty and can be traced to a specific town or geographical landmark; in others, only a specimen’s country of origin is known. This difference in specificity points to a degree of abstraction always present in our definition of place and site. While referencing the material’s long history of use in both art making and construction (in its industrially processed states), the mineral forms highlight a site’s physical location and conditions in relation to other, seemingly discrete sites. 

Born in Caracas, Venezuela, Ignacio Perez Meruane lives and works in Los Angeles.