For Frieze New York 2024, Ortuzar Projects is pleased to present a selection of textile works by Feliciano Centurión (1962–1996).
Born in San Ignacio, Paraguay to a mother who taught knitting, crocheting and embroidery at a local school, Centurión developed an artistic practice invested in self-expression and kitsch aesthetics that integrated painting and historically feminized handicrafts with found objects. In 1980 Centurión moved to Buenos Aires and by 1990 became associated with the Centro Cultural Ricardo Rojas, a cultural center founded in 1984 in the wake of the brutal military dictatorships that had defined the previous seven years of Argentine life. There he developed his series of frazadas: commercially-produced blankets emblazoned with charged symbols, diaristic texts or patterned designs that he created with embroidery, applique, lace, as well as painting and collage. As material acts of subversion and resistance, Centurión’s frazadas––many originally used as moving blankets––are metaphors for the refuge the artist sought throughout his life as an immigrant and a queer man.
The idea of using blankets as a medium or support for his paintings emerged from a conversation between Centurión and artist Ricardo Migliorsi. Centurión wrote in 1990 that an objeto cotidiano, rápidamente aceptado (an everyday object, easily available) provided a democratic medium through which he could center pop culture images that appealed to a Latin American middle class. After sourcing blankets at local markets, the artist adorned some of them with poignant embroidered messages, such as Soy el flujo del tiempo que no se detiene (I am the flow of time that does not stop) and Que en nuestras almas no entre el terror (May terror not enter our souls). His phrasings are both tender and profound, and contrast the impersonality of the commercial product. At times, they invoke the Spanish imperative to directly enjoin the viewer to heed its social messaging. After he was diagnosed with HIV/AIDs in 1992, his work became more intimate in scale and in sentiment, reflecting on life and mortality.
In Febo Asoma (Phoebus Rising) and Sol Naciente (Rising Sun), Centurión employs ñandutí (meaning “spider web” in Guaraní), an indigenous lace-making practice traditionally passed down from mother to daughter. His dedication to textile work testifies to the influence of indigenous cultures of modern-day Paraguay. The overpainted tiger in Untitled (1993) signifies a masculinity often represented by big cats in Paranaense and Latin American cultures. Reinscribing these culturally masculine symbols through a feminized mode of embroidery and weaving, Centurión queers and subverts the popular significations of the animals. Their presentation on frazadas, chosen for the blanket’s association with protection, warmth and loving care, brings the artist’s satirical attitude into sharp relief.
Centurión’s work is currently on view at the Institute for Studies on Latin American Art (ISLAA) in the group exhibition Threads to the South until July 2024. Recently, Centurión has been the subject of a solo presentation in Affective Affinities, the 33rd São Paulo Biennial, São Paulo (2018); Abrigo, Americas Society, New York (2020); and Ñande Róga, Hessel Museum of Art, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York (2021); Telas y Textos, Duke House at the Institute of Fine Art, New York University (2023). Group exhibitions include Bodies of Water at the 13th Shanghai Biennale, Shanghai (2021); and Eros Rising: Visions of the Erotic in Latin American Art at ISLAA, New York (2022).
