EMILIO CHAPELA | Angst

March 26, 2021 - June 25, 2021

META Miami and Henrique Faria New York are pleased to present Angst, Emilio Chapela’s first solo exhibition in the foundation Wynwood’s space.

Angst is commonly defined as a feeling of apprehension, insecurity, or fear. It is also used to describe distress about the human condition or the state of the world. Nonetheless, it can anticipate a sense of expectancy and hope. In these troubled times, this feeling resonates around the globe. We share in angst.

But imagining the world anew comes from attuning to its precarity and uncertainty, which is frightening, explains Anna Tsing: “but thinking though precarity makes it evident that indeterminacy also makes life possible”.

This project constitutes an effort to accommodate change by slowing down, and staying together, in closeness, with patience. Each line tightly follows the next, echoing, expanding and accommodating new layers that amplify the minimal error resulting from a fragile pulse, also affected by angst. These works demand concentration: time unfolds. They are therapeutic, not because they aim to rescind movement, but because they move along precarity.

Emilio Chapela (Mexico City, 1978) graduated from the Communication Sciences program at the Universidad Iberoamericana in 2002. He received a diploma in Photography and New Media at the Centro de la Imagen in Mexico City in 2001. He has been the recipient of several grants from the Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes (FONCA) including: Coinversiones Culturales (2008) and Jóvenes Creadores in two different occasions (2004-2005) and (2013-2014). Chapela was the artist in residence at the International Studio and Curatorial Program in New York in 2007 and at Linnienstrasse 40 in Berlin in 2012. He was presented with the Emerging Artist Award at PULSE Miami Art Fair in 2008 and the Tequila Centenario award in the same year. In November 2014, Chapela, with the support of a grant from the Fundación Jumex published Die K. F. Gödel Bibliothek, a book about an artistic project that explores the creative possibilities of books and libraries. His work has been featured in solo exhibitions at Laboratorio de Arte Alameda, Mexico City (2019); the Museo Carrillo Gil, Mexico City (2015); Sala de Arte Público Siqueiros, Mexico City (2013); Galería 11x7, Buenos Aires (2012); Linnienstrasse 40, Berlin (2012); Casa Maauad, Mexico City and Henrique Faria Fine Art, New York (2011); and Saw Gallery, Ottawa (2011). He has participated in acclaimed group exhibitions at Foto Colectania, Barcelona (2013); the Museo de Arte Moderno, Casa del Lago and Centro de la Imagen, Mexico City (2012); the Kunstraum and NGKB, Berlin (2012); the Museum of Contemporary Art, Toronto (2011); Pace Gallery, New York (2011); the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (2010); Houston Photo Fest Biennial (2010); and the Bass Museum, Miami (2010). His work has been acquired by the following institutions and collections: Colección Jumex, Mexico City; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; FEMSA, Monterrey; and Sayago & Pardon, Tustin, California.