While the Museum’s doors have been closed to the public, inside has been buzzing with the excitement of new exhibitions and a continued celebration of The Met’s 150th Anniversary. On a recent Press Preview by Zoom, we were given a sneak peak of The Roof Garden Commission: Héctor Zamora, Lattice Detour. The Metropolitan Museum of Art will reopen to the public on August 29th. (open to members on August 27th).
Héctor Zamora is known for works that engage public spaces and the built environment. In his practice, Zamora reinvents and redefines conventional exhibition spaces, generating friction between the common roles of public and private, exterior and interior, organic and geometric, real and imaginary.
“Both the Cantor Roof Garden and the Museum’s facade offer prominent platforms for new ideas and creative expression. We are thrilled to work with Héctor Zamora and Carol Bove on the next two commissions in this milestone year—the Museum’s 150th anniversary,” said Max Hollein, Director of The Met. “Zamora’s ability to transform public spaces and the built environment in ways that are often infused with tension related to current events is sure to make for a striking intervention on the Roof Garden. And Bove’s keen attunement to art history and the legacies of modernist and minimalist sculpture will make for a fascinating contrast with the facade. We look forward to unveiling their works.”
Sheena Wagstaff, The Met’s Leonard A. Lauder Chairman of Modern and Contemporary Art, added, “In their own way, each artist will challenge conventional approaches to two very different architectural spaces. For the Roof Garden, Héctor Zamora will invite us to reconsider the panoramic view of the city skyline and the implications of obstruction and permeability within a social space. Carol Bove will animate the constrained architectural framing of the Beaux-Arts facade with colorful stylized abstractions.”
Born in 1974 in Mexico City, Mexico, Héctor Zamora currently lives and works in Lisbon, Portugal. He received a bachelor’s degree in graphic design from Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-Xochimilco, Mexico City in 1998. Zamora’s work transcends the conventional exhibition space to reinvent and redefine it, generating friction between the common roles of public and private, exterior and interior, organic and geometric, real and imaginary.
His solo exhibitions include Movimientos Emisores de Existencia, LABOR, Mexico City (2019); Nas Coxas + Acima de tudo, Luciana Brito Galeria, São Paulo (2018); Ordem e Progresso, MAAT, Lisbon, Portugal (2017) Memorándum, Museo Universitario del Chopo, Mexico City, Mexico (2017); Re/vuelta, MARCO, Monterrey, México (2017); Dinâmica Não Linear, CCBB São Paulo, Brazil (2016); Ordre et Progrès, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France (2016); Panglossian Paradigm, Redcat, Los Angeles, California (2013); Architecture + Art, SMoCA, Scottsdale, Arizona (2012); Inconstância Material, Luciana Brito Gallery (2012); White Noise, Auckland Arts Festival, New Zealand (2011); Paraísos Ofrecidos, El Eco, Mexico City (2011); De Belg wordt geboren met een baksteen in de maag, FLACC, Genk, Belgium (2008) Cerca Series: Héctor Zamora, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (MCASD) (2007); Líneas de Suspensión, ensayo sobre GeometríaFunicular, Galería Enrique Guerrero, Mexico City (2005); Paracaidista, Av. Revolución 1608 bis, Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil, Mexico City (2004); a=360º r/R, installation at La Torre de los Vientos, Mexico City (2000).
Zamora’s work has also appeared in international group exhibitions, including Seismic Movements, Dhaka Art Summit, Dhaka, Bangladesh (2020); Durch Mauern Gehen, Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin (2019); Det Andet Sted, KØS Museum of Art in Public Spaces, Køge, Denmark (2019); Condemned to be Modern / Pacific Standard LA / LA, Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery (2017); Brasil Beleza?!, Museum Beelden aan Zee, The Hague, Netherlands (2016); Masterworks from the Hirshhorn Collection, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C. (2016); Buildering: Misbehaving the City, Lois & Richard Rosenthal Center for Contemporary, Cincinnati, Ohio (2014); Resisting the Present: Mexico, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France (2012); and Eco: Arte Mexicano Contemporáneo, Reina Sofía, Madrid (2005). The artist has also participated in numerous biennials such as the 11th Mercosul Biennial, Porto Alegre, Brazil (2018); 14th Lyon Biennial (2017); 4th Ural Industrial Biennial of Contemporary Art, Yekaterinburg, Russia (2017); 12th Havana Biennial, Havana, Cuba (2015); 8th Shenzhen Sculpture Biennial, China. (2014); 13th Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul, Turkey (2013); 12th International Cairo Biennial, Cairo, Egypt (2010); 6th Liverpool Biennial, United Kingdom (2010); 53rd Venice Biennial, Italy (2009); 27th São Paulo Biennial, Brazil; and 9th Havana Biennial, Cuba (2006).
The Roof Garden Commission: Héctor Zamora, Lattice Detour will be on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art through December 7, 2020.
The Roof Garden Commission series was established in 2013 by the Department of Modern and Contemporary Art. The series of site-specific commissions on The Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden has featured work by Imran Qureshi (2013), Dan Graham (2014), Pierre Huyghe (2015), Cornelia Parker (2016), Adrián Villar Rojas (2017), Huma Bhabha (2018), and most recently, Alicja Kwade (2019). The Roof Garden Commission is accompanied by a dedicated publication
#CantorRoof
While you’re there, check out special programming, Making The Met, 1870-2020 and Jacob Lawrence: The American Struggle.
Hungry? Step back in time while you have lunch at NYC’s oldest family-owned luncheonette, The Lexington Candy Shop, right down the block from The MET on 83rd Street and Lexington Avenue, with outdoor seating.