Carlos Martiel: Maze Wednesday, October 19, 2016, 6 to 8pm

RSVP: media@sdrubin.orgThis performance includes mature content and may not be suitable for children

Carlos Martiel, Maze, 2016. Performance at The 8th Floor. Photograph courtesy of the artist. [image description: a naked man in the foreground is gradually being sealed within a white architectural form being built by the clothed man in the gray t-shirt on the left]

 Carlos Martiel’s new performance Maze reflects on the current system of mass incarceration and racial discrimination in the United States, where a disproportionate number of the imprisoned are African Americans and Latino immigrants. Focusing on forced labor within the prison system, and the threat of loss of privileges and solitary confinement for prisoners who refuse to work, Martiel takes a position of stillness and draws parallels between current prison policies and conditions in the US and historical systems of oppression in European history.

Carlos Martiel, Maze, 2016. Performance at The 8th Floor. Photograph courtesy of the artist. [image description: a naked man in the foreground is gradually being sealed within a white architectural form being built by the clothed man in the gray t-shirt on the left]

Bio

Carlos Martiel (born 1989, Havana) lives and works in New York and Havana. He graduated from the National Academy of Fine Arts “San Alejandro” in Havana, 2009. Between the years 2008-2010, he studied in the Cátedra Arte de Conducta, directed by the artist Tania Bruguera. Martiel’s works have been included in: Havana Biennial, Havana, Cuba; Pontevedra Biennial, Galicia, Spain; Liverpool Biennial, Liverpool, United Kingdom; Biennial “La Otra”, Bogotá, Colombia; International Performance Art Biennale, Houston, USA; and Casablanca Biennale, Casablanca, Morocco. He has had solo exhibitions and performances at Y Gallery, New York, USA; Samsøn Projects, Boston, USA; Robert Miller Gallery, New York, USA; Steve Turner, Los Angeles, USA; Axenéo7, Gatineau, Canadá; Nitsch Museum, Naples, Italy; Lux Gallery, Guatemala City, Guatemala; and Contemporary Art Center “Wifredo Lam”, Havana, Cuba. He has received several awards including Franklin Furnace Fund in New York, USA, 2016; CIFOS Grants & Commissions Program Award in Miami, USA, 2014; and Arte Laguna in Venice, Italy, 2013. His work has been exhibited at Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea, Milan, Italy; Benaki Museum, Athens, Greece; Tornielli Museum, Ameno, Italy; Estonian Museum of Art and Design,Tallinn, Estonia; and Museum of Modern Art of Buenos Aires, Argentina, among others.