Current Season Current Exhibitions Current Events Video Lounge Future Exhibitions Past Exhibitions Touring Exhibitions News Catalogues Online Projects How to propose an exhibition Exhibitions for Hire 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 | 1999 | 1998 | 1997 La Mirada Crítica: Luis González Palma May - June, 2002 Tue - Sun: 11.00am - 6.00pm Galleries One, Two and Foyer curated by Alasdair Foster See Also: Exhibition Catalogue There is a deep sadness and a disquieting peace in the work of Luis González Palma, receiving it's Australian premiere at the Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney. Many of his images are portraits, close-cropped and large in scale. His subjects are the Mayan Indians of his homeland of Guatemala adorned with symbolic decoration drawn from both indigenous culture and Hispanic Catholicism. For almost his entire life, a civil war was waged in that country. Hundreds of indigenous Mayan villages were razed to the ground, more than 100,000 people died and a million were made refugees. But his are not documentary images of the facts of war, instead they are poetic meditations filled with contrasts and contradictions: beauty and sorrow, mysticism and violence, poetry and pain. Luis González Palma is an internationally renowned artist. His work featured in last year's Venice Biennale, previously in São Paulo and Havana, and won the Grand Prize at FotoEspaña, Madrid in 1999. He has had major solo shows across North and South America, Europe and Asia including in the Art Institute of Chicago; Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City; Royal Festival Hall, London; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Museo del Barrio, New York and Ludwig Forum fur International Kunst, Aachen, Germany. 'La mirada crítica' features a selection of work made over the past twelve years. The exhibition is specially created by the Australian Centre for Photography and marks the conclusion of a residency that Luis González Palma undertook as the guest of the Bundanon Trust with the generous support of the benefactor Philip Hughes. "I think and perceive of life as a union of beauty and pain, a drama presented in a romantic manner." Luis González Palma Image Credits: •  Luis González Palma, El pájaro (The Bird), 1989 •  Luis González Palma, La mirada crítica (The Critical Gaze), 1998 •  Luis González Palma Terms and Conditions | © Copyright: Australian Centre for Photography, 2008. All Rights Reserved. Site by Suture Net | Hosting by Dreamhost