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+--- Thread: Exhibition NY, SF: Leonora Carrington and Cecilia Vicuña (/showthread.php?tid=3735)
Exhibition NY, SF: Leonora Carrington and Cecilia Vicuña - Paul Ferguson - 10-14-2026
Lehmann Maupin and Gallery Wendi Norris to Collaborate on Two-Part Exhibition Pairing Leonora Carrington and Cecilia Vicuña
The intersection of Chilean artist and poet Cecilia Vicuña (https://www.google.com/search?kgmid=%2Fm%2F0c4br6m&q=Cecilia+Vicu%C3%B1a) and the concept of alchemy relates heavily to her use of raw material transformation, ecological critique, and ancestral indigenous rituals. [1] (https://biennialfoundation.org/2022/05/59th-venice-biennale/), [2] (https://www.printedmatter.org/programs/events/994)
The connection manifests across several major contexts:
1. "Material Alchemy" and Migrations
Vicuña's work is frequently framed through the lens of material alchemy. This perspective focuses on how she takes discarded, fragile, or seemingly insignificant objects—a practice she famously terms lo precario (the precarious)—and transmutes them into sacred, politically charged art. [1] (http://www.ceciliavicuna.com/curriculum-vitae), [2] (https://digital.artplay.com/blogs/artists/cecilia-vicuna), [3] (https://artmuseum.princeton.edu/art/stories-perspectives/migration-and-material-alchemy), [4] (https://www.printedmatter.org/programs/events/994)
• The Quipu: By spinning and knotting unspun wool, debris, or thread, she performs a physical alchemy that transforms raw materials into an ancestral Andean language of resistance and memory. [1] (https://www.instagram.com/p/DeKIlE-jDyH/), [2] (https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editors-getting-their-due), [3] (https://www.printedmatter.org/programs/events/994)
• Debris & Text: Her site-specific installations, drawings, and found-object assemblages ("basuritas") conceptually elevate garbage into an urgent commentary on global climate change and spiritual ecology. [1] (https://www.mocanomi.org/posts/cecilia-vicuna-about-to-happen), [2] (https://www.printedmatter.org/programs/events/994)
2. The 59th Venice Biennale: The Milk of Dreams
Vicuña's art was a focal point of the 59th Venice Biennale (2022), which heavily emphasized themes of alchemical transformation, hybridity, and somatic materiality. [1] (https://biennialfoundation.org/2022/05/59th-venice-biennale/)
• Her featured installation, NAUfraga, engaged with the concept of trans-historical dialogue.
• The exhibition placed her alongside historical surrealists and contemporary visionaries to explore how bodies and materials blend together, mimicking old-world alchemical processes to envision a post-humanist interconnectedness with nature. [1] (https://biennialfoundation.org/2022/05/59th-venice-biennale/)
3. Leonora Carrington Dialogue
A significant exhibition by Lehmann Maupin and Gallery Wendi Norris paired Cecilia Vicuña directly with the legendary surrealist artist Leonora Carrington. Carrington's entire oeuvre is famously steeped in occultism, witchcraft, and literal alchemy. By placing Vicuña's practice in a dual exhibition with Carrington, curatorial focus highlighted how both women use their art to subvert patriarchal structures by channeling esoteric, earth-centered, and transformative ritual magic. [1] (https://www.facebook.com/artnewsmag/posts/lehmann-maupin-and-gallery-wendi-norris-will-present-a-two-part-show-for-leonora/1571381818355311/), [2] (https://biennialfoundation.org/2022/05/59th-venice-biennale/)
https://tinyurl.com/y3zzpcf4