Point of Contact presents ‘Drawings on Delirium’

Point of Contact presents ‘Drawings on Delirium’March 10, 2009Tere Paniaguatpaniagu@syr.edu

Ricardo Lanzarini, a world-renowned Uruguayan artist, has come from Montevideo to Syracuse to recreate the mundane and the extraordinary in his drawings on delirium made to astonishing scales.

The Point of Contact Gallery, 914 E. Genesee St., Syracuse, has turned into an artist’s studio in which Lanzarini is integrating a group of students from Syracuse University’s Department of Fine Arts in his intense creative process that leads to the exhibition “The Gallery as Studio: Drawings on Delirium.” The opening reception-which is free and open to the public-is Thursday, March 19, at 6 p.m.

The exhibition will be on display through the summer. Lanzarini plans to return in early September for the presentation of a book catalogue about the show and to perform an “erasure” of the work drawn directly onto the walls of the gallery.

Lanzarini’s work balances extremes of scale, crafting an extensive abstract image from precise, miniscule characters, whose everyday activities serve as a window into a miniature world, frozen in time. “My drawings are made up of crowds of tiny figures, small characters who are on an endless pilgrimage,” says Lanzarini, “an eccentric range that portrays the human condition with ‘diminutive’ humor.” These drawings sarcastically explore the two major paradigms in figurative art of the 20th century: social and fantastic realism.

Even before completing his undergraduate studies, Lanzarini started to gain national and international attention for his intricate drawings. He is recipient of a Guggenheim Memorial Foundation fellowship; a grant from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Inc.; and first prize in the Third International Standards Biennial in Tijuana, Mexico. Lanzarini’s work has been shown in galleries and museums around the world-from Dublin to Paris to New York-and has been featured on the cover of several prestigious publications, including “Harper’s Magazine.”

Punto de Contacto/Point of Contact Inc. is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the exploration and exchange of ideas in the verbal and visual arts. The corporation is dedicated to publishing, as well as producing and documenting, special events that are generated in collaboration with Syracuse University and the artistic and intellectual community locally, nationally and internationally.

The Point of Contact Gallery is a member of the Coalition of Museum & Art Centers at Syracuse University (CMAC).