INTERNATIONALLY RENOWNED ARTIST MANGLANO-OVALLE’S JUGGERNAUT ON VIEW AT THE HARWOOD MUSEUM OF ART

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Taos, N.M. -- Internationally renowned artist Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle's video installation Juggernaut is on view now through Sunday, January 27 in the Harwood Museum of Art's Mandelman-Ribak Gallery.

Juggernaut was filmed in El Vizcaíno Biosphere Reserve on the Baja California peninsula, set between the Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Cortez. The largest protected area in Mexico, El Vizcaíno is probably best known for its salty waters where gray whales mate and give birth in the first few months of each year. El Vizcaíno is also home to massive industrial activity.

"When I made my initial site visit," says Manglano-Ovalle," "even as I stood on the deck of the ecotour boat witnessing the surfacing of a gray whale, I knew that, as an artist, my real interest in this site lay in turning away from this undeniably awesome image of nature . . . turning my camera not on these ‘monsters' of the deep (now the objects of our belated protection), but rather on the behemoths of our own making-the neighboring saltworks, jointly owned and operated by ESSA of Mexico and the Mitsubishi International Corporation of Japan."

According to PBS' Art 21 series, which featured the artist in its 2007 episode entitled Ecology, "Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle was born in Madrid, Spain, in 1961, and was raised in Bogotá, Colombia, and Chicago, Illinois. He earned a BA in art and art history, and a BA in Latin American and Spanish literature, from Williams College (1983), and an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (1989). Manglano-Ovalle's technologically sophisticated sculptures and video installations use natural forms such as clouds, icebergs, and DNA as metaphors for understanding social issues such as immigration, gun violence, and human cloning. In collaboration with astrophysicists, meteorologists, and medical ethicists, Manglano-Ovalle harnesses extraterrestrial radio signals, weather patterns, and biological code, transforming pure data into digital video projections and sculptures realized through computer rendering. His strategy of representing nature through information leads to an investigation of the underlying forces that shape the planet, as well as points of human interaction and interference with the environment.

Manglano-Ovalle's work is attentive to points of intersection between local and global communities, emphasizing the intricate nature of ecosystems. He has received many awards, including a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Award (2001) and a Media Arts Award from the Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio (1997-2001), as well as a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts (1995). He has had major exhibitions at the Rochester Art Center, Minnesota (2006); the Art Institute of Chicago (2005); Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Monterrey, Mexico (2003); Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art (2002); and Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (1997). Manglano-Ovalle lives and works in Chicago, Illinois."

Through January 27, 2013 at the Harwood Museum of Art
 Mandelman-Ribak Gallery:  Inigo Manglano-Ovalle:  Juggernaut
 Caroline Lee and Bob Ellis Gallery:  Falling Without Fear
 George E. Foster, Jr. Gallery of Prints, Drawings and Photographs: Curiosity:  From the Faraway Nearby
 Peter and Madeleine Martin Gallery:  Maye Torres:  Unbound

Hours
Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m.- 5 p.m; Sunday, 12 - 5 p.m.
General Admission
$10 adults, $8 seniors (65+) and students; Free to children age 12 and under, members of the Harwood Museum Alliance, University of New Mexico students and staff, and Taos County residents on Sundays. Where: The Harwood Museum of Art of UNM, 238 Ledoux Street, Taos, NM
Info: 575-758-9826, www.harwoodmuseum.org

Contact:
Jennifer Marshall
505-231-1776
jennifer@jmarshallplan.com
www.jmarshallplan.com