Papo Colo: Assorted Times in Singular Spaces
Curator
The Clocktower Gallery, 2013 and Liga de Arte, San Juan, 2017
Papo Colo: Assorted Times in Singular Spaces is an intimate selection of works on paper and poetry by Puerto Rican artist Papo Colo, presented at the Liga de Arte, in San Juan. A large exhibition of these works was originally organized by Beatrice Johnson for the Clocktower Gallery in New York in 2013 (information here).
Assorted Times in Singular Spaces presents select pieces from four bodies of work: two series of collages, Franco Documents (1976) and Secret Documents (1979); two series of ink on paper drawings, Post History Calligraphy (1978) and Protos (2012); and a book of poetry. The works reflect Colo’s interest in calligraphy, archaeology, and mysticism, and mark iconic moments in both political and personal histories. They explore the composition of poetry as visual imagination, and are in many cases produced in a semi-conscious state, channeling intellectual and physical impulses, in a Surrealist creative process.
Papo Colo (b. 1946, Puerta de Tierra, Puerto Rico) is a performance artist, painter, writer, and curator who lives and works in New York City and the El Yunque rainforest in Puerto Rico. In 1982 he co-founded Exit Art with Jeanette Ingberman, which became one of New York’s most important alternative art spaces. Colo’s work has been exhibited at MoMA PS1, the Clocktower Gallery, the Walker Art Center, the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, the Studio Museum in Harlem, El Museo del Barrio, and the National Gallery of Puerto Rico, among others.
