f r a n c i s c o s o u t o P O R E L R Í O D E L T I E M P O through the river of time

K I E C H E L F I N E A R T

this exhibition is a compilation of my experience

as an artist in residence in México. Each work

developed according to different moods and moments,

suggesting my own habits and contradictions. I want

art to be a way of thinking through, not simply making,

an image. Art is for and of something…A testimony of a

life lived.

In this new body of work, the physical and sensual

aspects of the material generate a point of

reconciliation for that seminal experience in México.

This fascination with the poetics of my experience

leads me to create work where subject matter is re-

contextualized and disjointed by depicting experiences

in a sequence of optical moments. These images

are recorded evidence of my daily life; they recall

memory fragments and suggest solutions through visual

mesmerisation. This constant search for the quotidian

sublime is compiled through drawings, photographs

and digital prints. Ultimately, the range of media in this

exhibition reflects art as a formative vehicle for the

exploration of a series of ideas, where the materials of

the actual become materials for the possible.

francisco souto

El río del tiempo, 2010. Archival pigment print (14 images), 6” x 90”

(TOP) Por el río del tiempo #4, 2010. Graphite on paper, 45” x 45”

(BOTTOM) Por el río del tiempo #1, 2010. Graphite on paper, 45” x 45”

sometimes meandering , sometimes focused and

directed, our lives, like rivers, unfold as a flow of experiences.

These experiences exist both in a particular space and time as

well as in our memories. In Por el Río del Tiempo (Through the

River of Time), Francisco Souto entices viewers with a range

of images, each of which captures not only a moment of lived

experience, but the artist’s processing of that experience as well.

Each softly blurred graphite drawing, digital print, or photograph

suggests a passing moment or perhaps a fleeting memory,

and encourages each of us to navigate our own journey as we

encounter and explore this body of work.

The title of the show references a novel, El Río del Tiempo (The

River of Time) (1999) that Souto was reading while working on

these pieces. Written by Colombian novelist Fernando Vallejo

(b. 1942), El Río del Tiempo comprises five novels individually

published between 1985 and 1993. Each novel is an amalgam

of autobiography and fiction, and veers between the present and

past. Although El Río del Tiempo did not serve as a specific literary

referent for the works in this exhibition, it did suggest a useful

conceptual framework for Souto. The notion that an image, like

this novel, can be both autobiographical AND fictitious—depict a

lived moment but remain obscure or mysterious to the viewer—

appealed to Souto.

But this exhibition is emphatically rooted in the visual, rather

than literary, realm. Souto’s presentation of the title—with which

the viewer is greeted upon entering the gallery—announces the

visual basis of this show. The series of digital prints of hands

signing each letter of the title transforms the expected verbal

language into a visual language, and sets the stage for the array

of engaging drawings, prints, and photographs.

For the artist, this body of work celebrates his experiences in

Mexico, where he spent his fall semester sabbatical in 2010.

Rather than plan his sabbatical project in advance, he allowed

his experiences while in Mexico to direct his work. The resulting

artworks, which he found surprising, are presented in this

exhibition. All of these images are based on photographs he took,

which he then translated into graphite drawings, digital prints, or

manipulated photographs. What particularly captivated Souto

was the feeling of comfortable displacement; because of his

Venezuelan heritage and fluency in Spanish, Mexico represented

a new cultural context without the anxiety of complete alienation.

This liminal space—in between the reassuringly familiar and the

utterly foreign—provided the artist with both a conceptual and

physical space in which to roam. His work thus deals with the

dynamics of space—physical space, mental space, and cultural

space. For example, some of the prints depict hazy figures

seen through a frosted glass door. There is a defined physical

space—the artist and we viewers on one side of the muntined

door and the blurred figures on the other. However, for Souto,

there is also an emotional resonance to the image. Because

those figures are, in fact, his son and daughter, the memory

of that experience, prompted by the photographs, echoes in

his mind. Even his working process emphasizes these spatial

relationships. When working on the graphite drawings, rather than

place the photograph next to the sheet of paper on which he was

drawing, Souto placed it on a wall behind him, so that he had to

stop drawing, turn around, and look at the photographic referent.

This gave Souto an opportunity to process the residual memories

that, for him, accompanied the photographs. In this manner, the

physical space between the drawing on the drafting table and

the photograph on the wall parallels the mental space in which

memory is processed.

For the viewer, these works also provide comfortable

displacement. We encounter blurry, vague, fragmentary images

that supply us with enough information to get our bearings, but

yet are sufficiently vague that we are allowed to construct our own

narratives or derive our own meaning. The artist carefully avoids

spelling out each experience, thereby encouraging each viewer to

find his or her way through the images. That journey is made much

easier by the aesthetic allure of the images. The smooth graphite

surfaces of the drawings, for example, captivate the viewer with

their soft seductiveness. That sensual materiality is important

to Souto, as it provides the initial hook—the first enticement for

viewers to engage with the drawings and work to make sense of

the hazy forms and veiled referents.

In the end, for both the artist and the viewer, these works operate

as metaphors—for artistic vision and process, for the way we

experience and process new cultures and places, and for how we

encounter and understand works of art. As impressive artworks

do, Souto’s images provide viewers with both visual pleasure

and conceptual engagement and invite repeated interaction and

reflection.

christin J . mamiya

Hixson–Lied Professor of Ar t History

Universi ty of Nebraska–Lincoln

(TOP) Barcelona #1, 2010. Graphite on paper, 22” x 22”

(BOTTOM) Barcelona #2, 2010. Graphite on paper, 22” x 22”

FRANCISCO SOUTO: SELECTED BIOGRAPHY Born in Mérida, Venezuela. Lives and works in the US since 1997

EDUCATION2002 M.F.A The Ohio State University2000 B.F.A Herron School of Art

CURRENT POSITIONAssociate Professor of Art, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

SELECTED COLLECTIONSSheldon Museum of Art, NebraskaNational Taiwan Museum of Fine Art, R.O.C.The National Museum of Art, RomaniaIno-Cho Paper Museum, JapanIndianapolis Museum of Art, IndianaBlanton Museum of Art, TexasLakeview Museum of Art, IllinoisMuseoGrabado, MéxicoEkaterinburg Museum of Fine Arts, RussiaThe Bibliotheca Alexandrina, EgyptPrint Cabinet Mondial de L’estampe et de la Gravure Originale, FranceAmity Art Foundation, ConnecticutSprint Corporate Art Collection, WashingtonMUNO The No-Museum of Contemporary Art, MexicoFonds d’Art Moderne et Contemporain, FrancePrivate collections nationally and internationally

SELECTED AWARDSSpecial Prize, 7th Kochi International Triennial of Prints, JapanSelected Prize, 12th International Biennial Print and Drawing Exhibition, R.O.C.Ex aequo Prize, International Mini-Print Biennial, Cluj, RomaniaHonorable Mention, 7eme Mondial de L’Estampe et de la Gravure Originale - Triennale de Chamalieres, FranceInternational Award, 6th British International Print Exhibition, United KingdomJuror award, 2005 Pacific States Biennial National Print Exhibition, HawaiiSpecial Prize, 6th Kochi International Triennial of Prints, JapanJuror Award and Purchase Award, Sixty Square Inches 14th Biennial Small Print Exhibition, IndianaSavoir-Faire Award, Boston Printmakers 2003 North America Print Exhibition, Massachusetts

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS2010 Francisco Souto: New Work, Fonds d’Art Moderne et Contemporain, France2009 La memoria del tiempo, Kiechel Fine Art, Lincoln, Nebraska Nebraska Now: Francisco Souto, Museum of Nebraska Art, Kearney, Nebraska 2007 El otro, el mismo (The self, and the other), Janu Hartmann Center Art Gallery, Peoria, Illinois 2006 Francisco Souto: New Work, Illinois Wesleyan University, Illinois Francisco Souto: Recent Prints, Slugfest Gallery, Texas2005 Francisco Souto, Brookhaven College School of Arts, Texas

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS2010 State of the States: A Contemporary Survey of American Printmaking, Texas A&M University Galleries A Survey of Contemporary Printmaking, Gray Gallery, East Carolina University New York International Print Fair 2010, The Park Avenue Armory, New York Works on Paper, New York City 2010, New York2009 Maestros del Grabado Latinoamericano Contemporaneo, Italy Multi-media Artist: A Focus on Photography, Kiechel Fine Art, Lincoln, Nebraska2008 Kochi International Triennial of Prints, Japan Works on Paper New York City, The Park Avenue Armory, New York2007 New York International Print Fair, New York City, New York Action/Interaction Book/Art, Columbia College, Illinois2006 12th International Biennial Print and Drawing Exhibition, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Art, R.O.C. 7eme Mondial de L’Estampe et de la Gravure Originale - Triennale de Chamalieres, France The International Mini-Print Biennial, Cluj-Napoca Art Museum, Romania

K I E C H E L F I N E A R T

5733 South 34th Street, Suite 300 Lincoln Nebraska 68516(402) 420-9553 gallery@kiechelart.com www.kiechelart.com

EXHIBITION DATESApril 22 to May 27, 2011Opening Friday, April 22nd

(ABOVE) Zacatecas #4, 2010. Graphite on paper, 22” x 22”(COVER) Por el río del tiempo #3, 2010. Graphite on paper, 45” x 45” (INSIDE) Poetica de la memoria #1, 2010. Archival pigment print, 46” x 33”

6th British International Print Exhibition, Gracefield Arts Centre, United Kingdom 7th Bharat Bhavan International Biennial of Print-Art 2006, Roopankar Museum of Fine Arts, India2005 IV Novosibirsk Biennial of Contemporary Graphic Art, Novosibirsk State Art Museum, Russia 2005 Hilo National Invitational Exhibition, University of Hawaii at Hilo, Hawaii Los Angeles Print Society 18th National Exhibition, The Armory Center for the Arts, California 6th Kochi International Triennial of Prints, Japan The Minnesota National Print Biennial 2004, Minnesota

SELECTED REVIEWSAraceli Rodarte Solorzano, “Centro de Museograbado imparte taller con experto en mezzotinta,” La Jornada, México, May 2010 Michael Krainak, “Another Nebraska,” Omaha Reader, Omaha, Nebraska, February 2010L. Kent Wolgamott, “Time and Memory: Striking images make up Francisco Souto: La memoria del tiempo at Kiechel,” Lincoln Journal Star, Lincoln, Nebraska, May 2010Kim Buckley, “Francisco Souto: Professor printmaker,” Omaha Reader, Omaha, Nebraska, August 2009Sofia Gamboa Duarte, “Francisco Souto: la mezzotinta, una meditación casi filosófica,” La Jornada, México, May 2008Theo Jean Kenyon. “Educated Risk: Bradley featuring artist who pushes limits of mezzotint,” Peoria Journal Star, Peoria, Illinois, November 2007Mondial de l’Estampe. “Les quatre grands prix déeernés, heir soir, avant le début officiel aujourd’hui,” La Montage, France, October 2006

“La Vocación: Prints of Francisco Souto,” Printmaking Today: International Magazine of Contemporary Graphic Art, Winter 2005 issue. Published in the UKDavid Newman, “Setting to work: Francisco Souto Prints,” Brookhaven College School of the Arts, Texas, February 2005Pamela S. Thompson, “For the love of prints,” L Magazine, Lincoln, Nebraska, March 2005Julianna Thibodeaux, “Stars and Spider Webs,” Nuvo Newspaper, Indiana, February 2003