Change Nothing by Víctor Rodríguez and Fernada Brunet: Curated by Christian Barragán at Main Room

SAENGER Galería is pleased to announce Change Nothing a duo exhibition by Mexican artists Fernanda Brunet and Víctor Rodríguez. Hosted in the gallery’s main hall, the exhibition presents the work of both artists together for the first time, sharing not only the same space, but also fundamental characteristics of their approach to painting, in which the two have found close responses between one another; a detailed study could show that those approaches between Brunet and Rodríguez are sometimes of a technical nature while on other occasions they are philosophical and also circumstantial. An example of this path in which Brunet and Rodríguez have agreed is the motto under which they present their work: Don't change anything. Taken from the Oblique Strategies by the duo composed of Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt in 1975, this phrase appears in the suggestion “Don't change anything and continue with consistency.” Taking this ruling into account, the exhibition Change Nothing by Fernanda Brunet and Víctor Rodríguez brings together a selection of large-format and recently created paintings in which the two artists have continued and persevered in their desire to practice painting.

“Don't change anything” expresses the reaffirmation of a mandate that each of the painters voluntarily chose at the time and that in their peculiar journey through life and art over a thirty year career has led them to have a common history and a trajectory with surprisingly symmetrical events; some of those random meeting points include the fact that Fernanda and Víctor are originally from Mexico City (just a few years apart), and that at the beginning of the 1990s they moved to the city of New York to reside, study and create (although Fernanda returned to Mexico after the attacks of September 11, 2001, while Víctor has remained there), and that they have exhibited in similar public institutions during the same period (between 1995 and 2010), such as the Cultural Institute of Mexico in New York, the Museum of Modern Art of Mexico, the Museum of Contemporary Art of Monterrey, the Carrillo Gil Art Museum or the Tamayo Museum; and in the private sphere they have collaborated regularly in the past with Ramis Barquet gallery, pioneer in the dialogue of contemporary painting between Latin America and the United States since the nineties. Brunet and Rodríguez have also concurred in obtaining recognition for the Monterrey and Rufino Tamayo biennials, as well as receiving the Scholarships awarded by FONCA; Finally, their work is also part of the Jumex Foundation Collection and the FEMSA Collection.

Beyond the natural distinction between the work of one artist and the other, which includes interests, themes, and approaches already characteristic of each one (revisions to modern and classical art, the painter and his model or the portrait executed with an imperfect hyperrealism at will by Rodríguez, or the human body with its drives and passions expressed through a synesthetic abstraction by Brunet), the duo exhibition Change Nothing reveals some shared fields of action; among others, drawing as an immanent element of painting (present before, during and after pictorial creation), composition based on the association of color and a fascination with desire, especially for what Fernanda Brunet has defined as “a form of desire” (and which manifests itself in the obsessive scream of a superimposed voice in Brunet's work or in the insistence on capturing the longed-for face in Rodríguez's work). Change Nothing is also the opportunity to learn about or delve deeper into the practice of two artists who have practiced painting with perseverance and determination for three decades.

— Christian Barragán