Juan Antonio Olivares: Moléculas
Mar 2–June 10, 2018
Juan Antonio Olivares, still from Moléculas, 2017. High-definition video, color, sound; 10 min. Whitney Museum of American Art; purchase with funds from the Film, Video, and New Media Committee. Image courtesy the artist
This exhibition by Juan Antonio Olivares (b. 1988) presents his 2017 video Moléculas, along with a suite of related drawings. Moléculas relates a highly personal narrative that is part autobiographical, part fantastical reality. The work explores fundamental questions about family, loss, separation, and contemporary politics, as well as the ways in which memories acutely and even painfully live on, long after events have passed. Made using 3D animation, Olivares’s touching video is equally sensitive in its technical detail. Rendered in a muted palette, the work is set in an interior that suggests both analyst’s office and modernist living room. The work visually evokes the delicate landscape of the mind, which Olivares ultimately sees as universal to our collective experiences, particularly of loss and death.
This exhibition is Olivares’s first solo presentation in a United States institution. The video work Moléculas is part of the Whitney’s permanent collection.
Juan Antonio Olivares: Moléculas is organized by Jane Panetta, associate curator, with Allie Tepper, curatorial project assistant.
Generous support for Juan Antonio Olivares: Moléculas is provided by Jackson Tang as part of the Whitney’s emerging artists series.
Artworks
Juan Antonio Olivares, still from Moléculas, 2017. High-definition video, color, sound, 10 min. Whitney Museum of American Art; purchase with funds from the Film, Video, and New Media Committee. Image courtesy the artist
Juan Antonio Olivares, still from Moléculas, 2017. High-definition video, color, sound; 10 min. Whitney Museum of American Art; purchase with funds from the Film, Video, and New Media Committee. Image courtesy the artist
Juan Antonio Olivares, still from Moléculas, 2017. High-definition video, color, sound, 10 min. Whitney Museum of American Art; purchase with funds from the Film, Video, and New Media Committee. Image courtesy the artist
Juan Antonio Olivares, still from Moléculas, 2017. High-definition video, color, sound, 10 min. Whitney Museum of American Art; purchase with funds from the Film, Video, and New Media Committee. Image courtesy the artist
Juan Antonio Olivares, still from Moléculas, 2017. High-definition video, color, sound, 10 min. Whitney Museum of American Art; purchase with funds from the Film, Video, and New Media Committee. Image courtesy the artist
Events
View all-
Wed,
Apr 18
Immigrant Justice Night
4–6 pm
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Mon,
Apr 9
Contemporaries Salon: Juan Antonio Olivares
7–9:30 pm
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Mon,
Mar 26
Member Evening Hours: Zoe Leonard, Grant Wood, Juan Antonio Olivares
6:30–7:30 pm
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Mon,
Mar 19
Member Evening Hours: Zoe Leonard, Grant Wood, Juan Antonio Olivares
6:30–7:30 pm
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Mon,
Mar 12
Member Evening Hours: Zoe Leonard, Grant Wood, Juan Antonio Olivares
6:30–7:30 pm
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Mon,
Mar 5
Member Evening Hours: Zoe Leonard, Grant Wood, Juan Antonio Olivares
6:30–7:30 pm
Essay
Juan Antonio Olivares:
There Is No End
For Juan Antonio Olivares, Moléculas (2017) is a work fundamentally about empathy. It raises questions about separation, loss, and the pain that ensues—and how this process situates us in a universal cycle of life and death.
Installation Photography
Installation view of Juan Antonio Olivares: Moléculas (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, March 2–June 10, 2018). Untitled, 2016–2017; Untitled, 2016–2017. Photograph by Ron Amstutz
Juan Antonio Olivares (b. 1988), still from Moléculas, 2017 (installation view, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York). High definition video, color, sounds; 10 min. Collection Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase with funds from the Film, Video, and New Media Committee 2017.185. Photograph by Ron Amstutz
Juan Antonio Olivares (b. 1988), still from Moléculas, 2017 (installation view, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York). High definition video, color, sounds; 10 min. Collection Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase with funds from the Film, Video, and New Media Committee 2017.185. Photograph by Ron Amstutz
Installation view of Juan Antonio Olivares: Moléculas (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, March 2–June 10, 2018). Untitled, 2016–2017; Untitled, 2016–2017; Untitled, 2016–2017; Untitled, 2016–2017; Untitled, 2016–2017; Untitled, 2016–2017; Untitled, 2016–2017; Untitled, 2016–2017. Photograph by Ron Amstutz