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We are honored to present the first León Ferrari gallery exhibition in New York.
Titled Serie de Errores, the exhibition features a little known but critical aspect of Ferrari’s oeuvre, the 1991 Error Series. In these stunning large ink drawings on paper and on high impact polystyrene, Ferrari reduced drawing to its purest and most autonomous essence, to record complex and abstract ideas. An engineer by training, Ferrari used the mathematical curve called a sinusoid, which is the Cartesian representation of an angle’s sine, as his point of departure.
 
Serie de errores, China ink,
1991 Serie de errores, China ink, 1991
21¾ x 15 in.(55 x 38 cm.) 39⅜ x 27⅝ in. (100 x 70 cm.)
The artist stated that “the obsessive repetition of the curve in its apparently boring uniformity is free only to make mistakes, lithely wriggling on the paper knowing that it will never attain the perfection of the leg of the hypotenuse. A drawing then can be the sum of infinite, persevering errors that the pen makes as it caresses the paper leaving its black ink trail.”
On view are numerous examples of his ‘written drawings’ from the early 1960s to this year; two hanging sculptures; a small, delicate wire sculpture from his musical Instrumentos series, a meter-tall architecture in stainless steel; and Prism a written-all-over object with an excerpt from Borges’ short story “El Inmortal.”
Prior to this gallery exhibition, Ferrari’s work was seen in New York in a handful of exhibitions over the past 20 years. In September 2004, the Drawing Center presented Politiscripts an exhibition of Ferrari’s subversive 1960s calligraphic drawings. Holland Cotter wrote that they “...convey the impression of carrying coded and encrypted information known only to the artist. In short, they are like a taunting gesture of counter-censorship. Through its very opaqueness, abstraction, real or imagined, becomes a political tool.” New York Times, October 8, 2004.
On October 17, 2007, León Ferrari was awarded the Gold Lion at the 52nd Venice Biennale; the jury stated “There is a body of work in the Arsenale that presents just some examples of a long and substantial career. The artist in question has continued a critical practice in the context of an often antagonistic political and social situation. He is given this award not only for his ethical attitude and political commitment, but also for a contemporary aesthetic relevance that is unexpected for a practice that spans six decades. The Golden Lion to an artist exhibited in the central International Exhibition is given to León Ferrari.”
León Ferrari receiving the Gold Lion Award at the Venice Biennale, October 17, 2007
The exhibition will continue through April 2008.
 
Plumilla 11-12-1962, China ink, Untitled Colors 1962, Color inks,
18⅞ x 12¼ in. (48 x 31 cm.) 17¼ x 10¾ in. (44 x 27,3 cm.)
 
Untitled 1963, China ink, Untitled Colors 1963, Color inks,
18½ x 12½ in. (47 x 32 cm.) 9 x 5½ in. (23 x 14 cm.)
 
Untitled 4/78, China ink, 11 x 7½ in. Untitled 31/12/78, China ink, 8¾ x 6¼
(27,8 x 18,8 cm.) in. (22,4 x 15,7 cm.)
 
Untitled Sculpture (№ 2/20), 1978 Toilette, 1982 Heliograph 39 3/8 x 39 3/8 in. Stainless steel 12 3/4 x 8 x 8 in. 32,7 x 20,9 x 21.2 cm. 100 x 100 cm.
 
Espiral, 1983 Heliograph 23 5/8 x 23 5/8 in. 60 x 60 cm. Untitled, 1991
Oil pastel on polystyrene, 78⅜ x 37⅜ in.
(200 x 95 cm.)
 
Serie de errores, 1991, Serie de errores, 1991, 8/4/91 Ink on
Ink on polystyrene, polystyrene, 39⅜ x 37⅜ in. (100 x 95 cm.)
78¾ x 39⅜ in. (200 x 100 cm.)
 
Untitled Color, 1998, Watercolor, Untitled Color, 1998, Color inks,
29⅞ x 22½ in. (76 x 57 cm.) 11⅝ x 8⅛ in. (29,6 x 20,7 cm.)
 
Malditos Bienaventurados, 1998, Ink, acrylic, Prism, 1999, Acrylic on Plexiglas, 39⅜ paper, glass, 32¼ x 29¾ in. (82 x 75,5 cm.) x 15¾ x 15¾ in. (100 x 40 x 40 cm.)
 
La recuerdo cuando llegeba, 2000ca. Instalación en la catedral 24/12/02, China ink, 11¾ x 8¼ in. (29,7 x 21 cm.) Blue ink, 15¾ x 11 in. (40 x 28 cm.)
 
Untitled 7/10/2002, China ink, Untitled 23/12/2002, China ink,
19⅝ x 13¼ in. (50 x 35 cm.) 16¾ x 12¼ in. (42.5 x 31 cm.)
 
Sangre, 2002, China ink, Artaud, 2003, China ink, 20 x 14 in.
17 x 12¼ in. (43 x 31 cm.) (50,8 x 35,5 cm.)
 
Los condenados, Sto. Tomás, 2005, Untitled, 2005, Mixed media,
Marker, 27⅝ x 19¾ in. (70 x 50 cm.) 28⅜ x 19⅞ in. (72 x 50,5 cm.)
 
Untitled, 2005, Mixed media, Untitled sculpture 5/1/06, Wood & wire, 28⅜ x 19⅞ in. (72 x 50,5 cm.) 55 x 31½ x 25⅝ in. (140 x 80 x 65 cm.)
 
Esfera, 2006, Stainless steel wire, Luna, 2007, Stainless steel wire,
33½ in. (85 cm. diameter) 39⅜ in. (100 cm. diameter)
 
Untitled, 2006, Acrylic on hardboard, Untitled 24/6/07, Acrylic on canvas, 39⅜ x 27⅝ in. (100 x 70 cm.) 39⅜ x 27⅝ in. (100 x 70 cm.)
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