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David Castillo & Belkis Ayón Estate announce two major acquisitions of the artist’s rare multi-panel works by The Museum of Modern Art, NY and National Gallery of Art, D.C.
In collaboration with the artist’s estate, David Castillo will present the first gallery solo exhibition of Ayón’s work since her death in 1999, which will be on view from January 30 – April 25, 2024. On the occasion of the exhibition, the gallery is releasing a monograph on the artist featuring two historical interviews and selected key works, published by [NAME].
"I use collagraphy because it seems to me the most
appropriate technique to express what I want to."
Belkis Ayón, Resurrección, 1998, collagraph, 108.87 x 85 inches
Belkis Ayón
Resurrection
1998
Resurrección was acquired by The Museum of Modern Art at Art Basel in Basel / David Castillo (Booth D14).
Between 1991 and 1998, Belkis Ayón made a series of large-format multi-panel collographs, chief among them, Resurrección (1998). Containing varied elements of the Abakuá and using Sikán as the central figure, Resurrección, depicts subjects, emergent and upright, foregrounded by a slumped male figure clad in symbolic head painting. Of the four main figures, Sikán punctuates the composition in hue and in gesture, tracing allegories of her myth across a personal autobiography.
David Castillo Booth D14 at Art Basel in Basel 2023
Belkis Ayón, Sin Titulo (Mujer en Posición Fetal), 1996, collagraph, 89 x 67 inches
Belkis Ayón
Untitled (Woman in fetal position)
1996
Sin Titulo (Mujer en Posición Fetal) was acquired by National Gallery of Art at Art Basel in Miami Beach / David Castillo (Booth F34)
Belkis Ayón’s masterful collographs illustrate the sacred mythologies of the Abakuá, an Afro-Cuban belief system and secret society only men can join. Ayón’s works depict teachings that were forbidden to her as a woman; Sikán—the only woman represented in the religion’s pantheon is put to death for revealing Abakuán secrets. Ayón reimagined this figure’s tragic story across her collographs, bringing them both—one human, one myth—together to navigate male-dominated worlds.
David Castillo Booth F34 at Art Basel in Miami Beach 2022