Through her textured three-dimensional collages and wooden assemblages, Gramcko successfully overcame the inherent flatness of surfaces. The final series presented in this exhibition are known as “Bocetos de un artesano...
Through her textured three-dimensional collages and wooden assemblages, Gramcko successfully overcame the inherent flatness of surfaces. The final series presented in this exhibition are known as “Bocetos de un artesano de nuestro tiempo (Sketches by an Artisan of Our Time)”. This series comprises the last works produced by Gramcko, who stopped making art in 1979 due to health issues. It consists of assemblages made on wood that emphasize the handmade over the industrial mode of production with titles that suggest a skeptical intent. The artist collected found wood on beaches, to which she collaged elements of industrial debris and later marked with her own texts.
These assemblages on wood began as compositions inspired by Piet Mondrian’s orthogonal structures with colored boards organized by the grid, such as the work "Identificación plástica con un centro interior (Plastic Identification with an Internal Center,)" 1975. The series ended with what Mari Carmen Ramírez described as precarious constructions of bare pieces of wood assembled with no pictorial artifice or compositional structure.
Gramcko stated: “These works are questioning contemporary society. I mean, it’s really about trying to defend us against becoming automated machines, becoming the teeth on a gear, and it’s about privileging our individuality.”
Elsa Gramcko, Bocetos de un artesano de nuestro tiempo. Galeria G, Caracas, Venezuela, 1986. Elsa Gramcko: The Invisible Plot of Things, Sicardi | Ayers | Bacino, Houston, TX, May 13 – July 2, 2022.
Publications
Rangel Gabriela, Aruna D’Souza. Elsa Gramcko: The Invisible Plot of Things. Published by Sicardi |
Ayers | Bacino, James Cohan, printed by Faenza Group, Italy, 2022, p. 97.