PAST EXHIBITIONS

The museum’s commitment to the contemporary takes more robust shape with its presentation of work by the Spanish conceptual artist Ignasi Aballí (b. 1958), who is representing Spain at the 59th Venice Biennale. Aballí is a conceptual artist whose multimedia work often incorporates unusual materials that challenge the viewer’s perception of reality while raising questions about transience and permanence. The Meadows will exhibit his series Palabras Vacías (Empty Words) (2020), which confronts the viewer with 27 individual, galvanized iron plates hung at eye level. Cut into the metal plates are words such as “INVISIBLE” and “ABANDONED”—and other adjectives that reference being invisible or forgotten—thereby imbuing the negative space with meaning; what he refers to (both literally and figuratively) as “empty words.” The resulting tension between the form and meaning of the words creates a dialogue between language and image, between signified and signifier. Confronted by empty space, the viewer is, in a way, seeing the meaning of the words rather than the words themselves. Palabras Vacías is hung differently each time it is exhibited, and the artist himself will work with museum staff to oversee the installation in the Meadows’s galleries when he is on site in early March.

This exhibition marks the inauguration of the Meadows’s partnership with Fundación ARCO, which is among Spain’s most important advocates for living artists. Established in 2019, MAS: Meadows/ARCO Artist Spotlight is a six-year partnership under which one contemporary Spanish artist with limited recognition in the U.S. is chosen biennially to present his or her work at the Meadows Museum for approximately four months. The artist is selected through a juried process involving representatives from both Fundación ARCO and the Meadows Museum. A key component of the program is the artist’s visit to Dallas for educational programming and special events in coordination with the Meadows School of the Arts and other local partners. Selected artists will do studio visits with MFA students, present their work in a public gallery talk, and more, with the goal of building lasting ties between SMU, Fundación ARCO, and the artists themselves.

This exhibition has been organized by the Meadows Museum, SMU, Dallas, in collaboration with Fundación ARCO and is funded by a generous gift from The Meadows Foundation.