Tomás Rivas | Contemporary Art from Chile: Traveling Light | Artist 5 of 5

Tomás Rivas | www.tomasrivas.com

Tomás Rivas

Contemporary Art from Chile: Traveling Light

AMA | Art Museum of the Americas

Artwork

Rivas' site-specific piece, The Room Next Door, is a revision of the Salon Doré, which is the Corcoran Gallery of Art's 18th Century French period room with gilded paneling and Corinthian pilasters. Concentrating on segments of patterns and moldings of the Salon Doré, this piece relates the structure and surface of decorative motifs with speculation about the interior order of these forms inside the Corcoran.

Made from plaster, wood, and everyday materials, the work generates a temporary distance from the original source and a close-up study of decorative forms from the 18th Century and other neo-classical patterns. The Room Next Door also explores ornamentation and hierarchy in architecture.

detail from The Room Next Door by Tomás Rivas
(Photo by Christopher Cunningham)

Bio
Tomás Rivas (b. 1975, Santiago). Rivas holds a Master’s Degree in Fine Arts (MFA) from the University of Notre Dame, IN, United States and a Bachelor of Arts from the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile. His work has been exhibited throughout Argentina, Germany, Brazil, Chile, United States, France, England, and Israel. Among his main Exhibits we find Tectonic Shift: Arte Contemporáneo de Chile, Saatchi Gallery y Philips de Pury, Londres (2010); Contaminaciones Contemporáneas, MAC USP, São Paulo (2010); Chili, l’envers du décor , Espace Culturel Louis Vuitton, Paris; Slash, Paper under the knife, Museum of Art and Design, New York (2009); Material Ligero: Five artists from Santiago, Chile travelling light, Margaret Lawrence Gallery, VCA, Melbourne (2009); Flujo, Obras de Gerardo Pulido y Tomás Rivas, Museum of Visual Arts, Santiago (2009); Boyscraft, (Haifa Museum of Art), Haifa (2008); Abre Alas, Galería A Gentil Carioca, Rio de Janeiro (2007); Feedback, Cultural Center Matucana 100, Santiago, Chile (2007); Alegoría Barroca en el Arte Contemporáneo, Museum of Contemporary Art MAC, Santiago (2006). Since 2003, he has received awards and scholarships including the AMA Scholarship, (2008), the Scope Emerging Artist Grant (Emerging Artist Award) Foundation Scope New York (2006), 1984 Foundation Fellowship (Fellowship) Project for the Study of Ancient Architecture (Director: Robin F. Rhodes). Ancient Corinth, Greece, The Outstanding Student Achievement Award (International Award for graduate students in Master in Fine Arts), Graduate Teaching Assistantship Fellowship (Academic scholarship) University of Notre Dame, IN. Rivas is currently doing a residency program at LUX Art Institute, USA, and RIAA, Argentina. He also teaches at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile.